ICC Women's World Cup Qualifier - 13th match - Group A – USA v Zimbabwe – Match Update
USA 188 v Zimbabwe 187 - United States of America Women won by 1 run
The 13th match of the ongoing International Cricket Council (http://www.senore.com/Cricket/ICC-World-Cup-2011-c100625) Women’s World Cup Qualifier between United State of America and Zimbabwe turned out to be a thrilling encounter between the two sides as USA inched a close win by just a run against
their rivals on Friday, November 18, 2011 at Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur.
Both teams were coming into the match after facing defeats in a day before in their respective matches and were now looking to grab a win in this match.
After winning the toss, Zimbabwe chose to field first a decision which was surprising on many levels because Zimbabwe do not have an impressive batting line-up and should be more dependent on their bowlers instead.
However, putting USA might have faced defeat if it hadn’t been for the outstanding performance from 27-year-old opener Nadia Gruny and number-three batswoman Shebani Bhaskar as the two proved extremely productive against the Zimbabwean bowling brigade.
Nonetheless, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Zimbabwe-c3045 made early inroads by dismissing opener Delkash Shahriarian in 6th over when the batswoman had managed to post only three runs on the board. At the time of her wicket, USA had amassed only nine runs.
N Gruny and S Bhaskar then smashed a resilient partnership of 57 runs as they subdued their opponents.
Gruny scored 28 runs while Shahriarian contributed a stupendous knock of 72 runs to help her side post 188 runs as after the duo none of the remaining batswomen could stand against Zimbabwean bowlers.
Needing 189 runs to win, Zimbabwe came out to bat in a bid to give USA a run for their money. After losing the openers cheaply, Zimbabwe forged an astounding run chase that almost got them home had they made only one run.
USA were completely taken aback by the teamwork and clam run chasing strategy exhibited by Zimbabwe who looked determined not to lose their fixture against a team which lacks experience in the game of cricket.
However, in the end, Zimbabwe could muster 187 runs as they lost a match only by a thread.
S Bhaskar from the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Usa-c759 was named as the Player of the Match for her resilient knock with the bat.
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