Kevin Pietersen lashed 79 off 37 balls as England beat giant-killers Zimbabwe in a Twenty20 World Championship match at Newlands on Thursday.
England won by 50 runs as they sent Zimbabwe crashing back to earth after their shock five-wicket win over tournament favourites Australia at the same ground on Wednesday.
Pietersen and captain Paul Collingwood were mainly responsible for England’s total of 188-9 after Collingwood decided to bat after winning the toss.
Pietersen and Collingwood (37) put on 100 for the fourth wicket off 54 balls.
Zimbabwe briefly threatened to repeat Wednesday’s upset when Vusi Sibanda and Brendan Taylor put on 74 for the first wicket in 8.4 overs.
But Zimbabwe’s innings lost momentum against the medium pace of Dimitri Mascarenhas and the leg-spin of Chris Schofield.
Bowling in tandem, Mascarenhas and Schofield were responsible for five wickets while conceding only 33 runs between them in eight overs. Mascarenhas took 3-18 and Schofield 2-15.
For Schofield, it marked a successful return to international cricket after he played in two Test matches in 2000 before hitting a low in his career, which included a spell in Minor Counties cricket before he joined Surrey late in the 2006 season.
Australia play England in the final match of the group at Newlands on Friday, needing to win to stay in the tournament.
Pietersen batted with power and invention in an innings that included four sixes and seven fours. At one stage he hit successive reverse sweeps off slow left-arm bowler Keith Dabengwa for 6, 4 and 4 in an over in which he scored 22 runs.
It was the reverse sweep which was his downfall, however, when he hit Zimbabwe captain, off-spinner Prosper Utseya, to Hamilton Masakadza on the deep-cover boundary.
The momentum went out of England’s innings in the next over when Collingwood attempted a second run and could not beat an accurate throw from the boundary by Vusi Sibanda.
England could only add 37 runs for the loss of six wickets in the last 5.3 overs following Pietersen’s dismissal.
Opening bowler Elton Chigumbura, one of the heroes of Zimbabwe’s five-wicket win over tournament favourites Australia Wednesday, took 4-31. He twice took wickets with successive deliveries.
Sibanda and Taylor hammered 32 off the first three overs of Zimbabwe’s innings. Taylor, man of the match after making 60 not out against Australia, scored 47 off 39 balls before he was bowled by Mascarenhas. — AFP
