ICC Intercontinental Cup and Shield

CANADA v ZIMBABWE XI Put into bat by Zimbabwe, Canada began confidently with an opening partnership of 45, dominated by Hiral Patel, but after he was dismissed in the tenth over, they inexplicably collapsed. Only Rizwan Cheema prevented a total rout. Showing a combination of patience and aggression, he hit six fours and two sixes in an undefeated innings of 46 but his overall strike rate was only 41.4. Canada lost six of their middle order for 35 runs as the wickets were shared among both pace and spin bowlers. Umar Bhatti and Henry Osinde responded well in reply, taking three Zimbabwean wickets but Vusi Sibanda and Craig Ervine looked well set at the close when the visitors were 88 for three. The scorecard implies that Zimbabwe dominated the second day but, in reality, this was far from the case. They lost Sibanda to the first ball of the morning sesssion and, thereafter, wickets fell regularly as the batsmen found Umar Bhatti and Osinde difficult to handle. Umar Bhatti was the more successful, picking up six wickets; Osinde would have been more effective if he could have controlled his run-up and his direction. Six wides and seven no-balls proved a luxury that Canada could ill afford. The exception to Zimbabwe’s frail batting was Ervine who achieved a strike rate of 62.3, a century off 179 balls and, when the last batsman to be dismissed, a score of 177 with 16 fours and three sixes. He put on 111 for the eighth wicket with Shingirai Masakadza and masterminded a tenth-wicket stand of 44 with Tendai Chitara. Thanks to Ervine, Zimbabwe attained an impressive first-innings lead of 222. Masakadza and Chitara took three Canadian wickets in 21 overs of the evening session which ended with the home side 173 runs in arrears. On the third day, Canada again gave a poor batting display and never looked as though they would make Zimbabwe bat again. Masakadza, Ed Rainsford and Chitara all bowled well with Masakadza picking up five wickets and Chatara three. Trevin Bastiampillai and Hemnarine Chattergoon, the overnight pair, took the score to 73 at which point Canada lost four wickets for two runs. Hamza Tariq and Umar Bhatti held off the inevitable in a partnership of 32, with Hamza Tariq going on to make the highest score of the innings to complement a competent display of wicketkeeping on the previous day. Craig Ervine won his second consecutive Man-of-the-Match award. It was his batting that set apart what were otherwise two closely-matched sides, characterized by more than useful bowling attacks but inept batting. 206 ICC Intercontinental Cup 2009-10