Zimbabwe 147 for 7 (Williams 53) beat Scotland 136 (Berrington 36, Masakadza 4-28) by 11 runs
Scotland's chances of further participation at the World T20 ended in a match they will rue letting slip away. They took regular wickets to keep Zimbabwe to under 150 and then recovered from 20 for 4 to stay in the chase until the final over but in the end, remain without a win in a major tournament in 19 attempts.
Zimbabwe sneaked through for their second victory in qualification even though they failed to tighten up on the disciplines that almost let them down over Hong Kong. There were soft dismissals in their batting and they took their foot off the pedal after a superb start with the ball but they also had much to celebrate.
Sean Williams' fifty held them together, Wellington Masakadza's wickets at the beginning and in the middle allowed them to keep pulling Scotland back before Donald Tiripano's death bowling sealed the win. If nothing else, Zimbabwe showed their ability to hold their nerve in pressure situations, which is what these events are all about.
The contest could have been over 19 balls into Scottish reply when their top four had all been sent back but Richie Berrington hung on. He survived the loss of a fifth wicket and then combined with captain Preston Mommsen to add 51 runs for the sixth wicket and threaten to take the game away from Zimbabwe.
Then, the contest looked decided in the 15th over when Masakadza's double-strike included Mommsen's wickets and saw the required run-rate balloon to more than ten an over but Josh Davey was on hand. He slammed 24 runs off 13 balls to leave Scotland with 30 runs to get off the final three. With Berrington still there, it seemed possible.
On a surface that was a touch slower than the one used on Tuesday, Tiripano took pace off the ball, Berrington was early into his shot and offered a catch to short third man. Davey was still there but after four balls in the penultimate over without a boundary, he tried to send Tinashe Panyangara over long-on and only got as far as Sikandar Raza.
Scotland needed 19 off the final over and took seven off the first three balls before Tiripano bowled Alasdair Evans with a slower ball and gave Zimbabwe reason for relief even though they would preferred to have more runs to defend.
Zimbabwe's innings lacked fluency and was studded with setbacks which started with the captain. For the second successive match Hamilton Masakadza was run-out and this time in dangerous fashion. When Vusi Sibanda chopped one down to short cover, both he and Masakadza set off immediately for the single even as Kyle Coetzer at short cover swooped in. The pair continued ball-watching and collided into each other trying to complete the run.
Masakadza was well short of his ground and Sibanda needed on-field attention for a cut on his chin. He only lasted seven further balls, of which he faced two, before it all got too much. In characteristic Sibanda fashion, he picked out the man at deep square leg with the pull to put Zimbabwe in early trouble.
Richmond Mutumbami, who was not among the runs in the first match, seemed eager to compensate. He made Safyaan Sharif pay for errors in length and took on a Michael Leask full toss but the bowler responded in the field. In the next over, Leask was at long-off when Mutumbami tried to send Mark Watt down the ground but did not get enough on his shot. Leask almost dropped the first attempt and then caught it one-handed on the rebound.
Williams needed a partner but Sikandar Raza was dismissed early to leave Williams to take matters into his own hands after that. He brought out the sweep and found the boundary while rotating strike with Malcolm Waller. They put on 38 for the fifth wicket but just as they could look to accelerate Waller was caught at long-off.
Elton Chigumbura's finishing was called on earlier than he may have liked and he gave himself time to settle in. Williams kept most of the strike early in their partnership and reached fifty off 36 balls, before Chigumbura announced his intent with a six off Evans.
When Williams departed three balls later, Chigumbura had to finish strongly but Scotland managed to keep him quiet for all but one ball, when he drilled Sharif for four. Scotland gave away just 19 runs in the last three overs and Zimbabwe may have been concerned they did not have enough. In the end they did, but only just.
Afghanistan 119 for 4 (Shahzad 41, Noor Ali 35) beat Hong Kong 116 for 6 (Rath 28, Campbell 27, Nabi 4-20) by six wickets
Hong Kong tied themselves into knots against Mohammad Nabi, and how. Their lack of application on slow turners, typical of the subcontinent, stood exposed as Afghanistan bossed their way to second successive win, this time by six wickets, to set them up for a knockout against Zimbabwe which will determine the Group B qualifier for the Super 10s.
Hong Kong, who opted to bat, raced away to 40 without loss, before the sight of spin induced a sense of panic and desperation in their ranks. Four wickets in four overs, two of those being Babar Hayat and Mark Chapman, the latter to a superb yorker from Gulbadin Naib, had Hong Kong short-changed even before the halfway mark of their innings. They then huffed and puffed to 116 for 6 on the back of Anshuman Rath's industry, an unbeaten 31-ball 28, a total that was 40 short of what Tanwir Afzal, the captain, hoped to get.
Hong Kong's slim chances from that point were pinned on regular strikes at the top by their new ball bowlers. Once that didn't come, the game was reduced to being a cakewalk for Afghanistan. They rode piggyback on Mohammad Shahzad's 41; a typically robust innings that had all his typical elements as Afghanistan won with two to spare.
Ryan Campbell, who struggled for timing on his Hong Kong debut two nights ago, went out with a 'high-risk, high returns' approach, and found his hitting range early on as he muscled five boundaries. But predetermining his shots came back to haunt him as Nabi's slow turn beat him in an attempted sweep as the ball bounced back onto the stumps. Two balls later, Hayat was deceived in flight as he chipped a simple catch to cover.
The purchase on offer for Nabi forced another change as Rashid Khan, the skiddy legspinner, was summoned, and he made an impact immediately courtesy of his mix of googlies and sliders. Hong Kong's batsmen suddenly started playing for demons that weren't there on the surface as the slower men scythed through the middle order, with the continuous loss of wickets making run-making difficult.
Amidst the carnage, Rath nudged his way by playing with soft hands, and using deft touches to push his team to where they finished with. Nabi, whose 4 for 20 handed him the best figures by an Afghan bowler in T20Is, led them off the field.
The momentum they gained after a top class display of death bowling was carried forward with the bat; Noor Ali Zadran's straight boundary off the first ball he faced revving up Afghanistan. With little swing or nip off the surface, the pacemen resorted to gentle off-cutters. Afzal then turned to spin in the hope of doing to Afghanistan what Nabi and Rashid Khan did to them. But the batsmen's application thwarted their designs.
For a change, it was Noor Ali who did the early running by showing why a simple approach relying on timing, and not just brute force, can be rewarding in a T20 game, especially in a small chase. But to their credit, both openers didn't miss out on long hops either as Afghanistan wiped out 43 in the first six overs. With the groundwork done, both batsmen began to express themselves freely, until overconfidence got the better of Shahzad, who holed out to long-off for a 40-ball 41 to give Campbell his first T20 wicket.
Nabi and Noor Ali then milked the bowling as the spinners went through their motion, hoping for mishits and poor shot selection to help them pick up wickets. They brought the target down to 22 off 34 balls before an ungainly slog ended Nabi's stay. Two balls later, Noor Ali was run-out courtesy Hayat's flat throw from the deep. Having done all the hard work, gloss was further taken away from Afghanistan's chase as Shafiqullah was out bowled to an attempted slog.
But three wickets in quick time did very little to lift Hong Kong, whose muted celebration was a giveaway that it wouldn't have really affected the big picture. Gulbadin Naib then polished it off with two classical drives and a neat tickle down leg side as Afghanistan completed an easy chase with plenty to spare.
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