Sikandar Raza continued his fine form with bat and ball to bring Zimbabwe back to life in the second Test and take the game against the West Indies into the final day. Zimbabwe looked to have been knocked out cold when they conceded a 212-run partnership between Jason Holder and Shane Dowrich and then suffered a top-order collapse in their second innings, but an unbroken stand of 94 between Raza and Peter Moor meant that they lived to fight another day.
They pair came together with Zimbabwe on 46 for 4 in their second innings, still needing 76 runs to make the West Indies bat again. By the close of play they had guided the hosts to 140 for 4, giving them a narrow lead of 18 runs.
The only issue with the 268-ball partnership was the scoring rate, which all but ruled out Zimbabwe's chances of winning the match and squaring the two-match series. But on a slow pitch against an attack that was increasingly bowling dry, Raza and Moor had little option but to exercise caution and hope that their defiance will give their side an outside sniff on the final day.
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe—Opener Kieran Powell agonisingly missed out on a century but wicketkeeper Shane Dowrich chose the ideal time to break out of a protracted slump as he and captain Jason Holder stepped up on day three of the second and final Test yesterday.
Windies still had three wickets in hand at 374-7 in its first innings, with Dowrich and Holder both hitting unbeaten half-centuries in their eighth-wicket stand.
They took West Indies past Zimbabwe’s 326 all out, with the chance of building a significant lead on day four.
Dowrich was 75 not out and Holder 71 not out to rescue the West Indies innings after they came together on 230-7.
At that point, it appeared the tourists, who are 1-0 up in the two-match series, would have a first-innings deficit to claw back. Their mid-innings struggles were down to a five-wicket haul from part-time Zimbabwe spinner Sikandar Raza, who cut through the West Indian middle order for his 5-82, his first five-for in tests.
Zimbabwe stayed ahead of the West Indies after day two of the second cricket Test at Queens Sports Club yesterday with their depleted bowling attack having a lot of work to do in order to maintain the advantage. Hamilton Masakadza top scored with 147 runs, his highest score in Test cricket, while Sikandar Raza was second best with 80 for Zimbabwe’s first innings of 326 in 109.1 overs.
At stumps, West Indies had progressed to a painstaking 78 for one in 49 overs, having lost the wicket of Kraigg Brathwaite. Debutant, Tendai Chisoro, who has a huge role to play with his left arm spin if Zimbabwe are to bowl out West Indies today, feels that if they can take can strike early this morning, then they stand a chance of winning the Test and level the series.
SYDNEY, Australia (CMC) — A Sydney court yesterday ruled in favour of West Indies star Chris Gayle in a widely publicised defamation case involving leading Australia media company, Fairfax Media.
Following the six-day trial, a four-member jury comprising one man and three women concluded in less than two hours that Fairfax Media had failed to prove that a series of articles it published about Gayle last year were true.
ST JOHN’S, Antigua - The following is a statement in response to an article carried by Barbados Today which was entitled “High Performance Academy launched”.
The article stated that according to Beckles, “the University has always maintained that the relationship had to be inclusive of University of West Indies (UWI) and Cricket West Indies (CWI) and efforts to persuade Cameron to re-enter the tripartite arrangement have proved futile.”
“West Indies Cricket Board chose to withdraw from the partnership. We have brokered a tripartite arrangement, UWI, Sagicor, WICB, a tripartite arrangement that gave us the academy that has produced all of these young cricketers. All of these young men who are doing so well, fighting for West Indies, came through the academy.
“I tried to persuade CWI and Mr. Cameron to come back into the tripartite arrangement and they [CWI] have opted not to because they have another approach. We at the University believe in the effectiveness of our research, we believe in the effectiveness of our model. It has been proven that the youngsters who are now fighting for West Indies’ future are products of that mental construct. We have confidence in them and we believe that when they return home, they should return home to an academy,” he said.
CWI’S POSITION
To clarify, CWI, in partnership with UWI, ran a High-Performance Center (HPC) at the Cave Hill Campus in Barbados between 2010 and 2016. The HPC was sponsored by Sagicor for a 4-year period, but their contract was unfortunately not renewed. CWI is very grateful to Sagicor for their support over the years and confirms that it would encourage a tripartite relationship and is open to dialogue on the same.
CWI is currently working on a new strategic plan for 2018-2023, and has already held formal discussions with UWI on developing a comprehensive partnership across many different areas of the University.
CWI continues to fund the development of the Combined Campuses and Colleges Marooners cricket team and is looking forward to their participation in the Super50 tournament this season.
CWI is committed to developing world-class cricketers and is confident that a new long-term agreement with UWI will be finalised in 2018.
