Zimbabwe XI, West Indies warm-up match peters out to a draw

West Indians – 517 and 82-2 in 27.1 overs (Jermaine Blackwood 34*, Tagenarine Chanderpaul 23, Nkrumah Bonner 13; Faraz Akram 1/4, William Mashinge 1/6)

Zimbabwe XI – 122 all out in 56.3 overs (Timycen Maruma 37, Tafadzwa Tsiga 21*, Faraz Akram 19; Alzarri Joseph 2/12, Shannon Gabriel 2/21, Gudakesh Motie 2/24)

Match drawn

The three-day warm-up match between the Zimbabwe XI and West Indian sides petered out to a draw at Bulawayo Athletic Club on Monday, after the tourists had gained a big lead of 395 runs on the first innings.

The home team began the third day on 52 for five wickets, with Timycen Maruma on 15 and Milton Shumba four.

Shumba was soon bowled by Shannon Gabriel for 13, but Maruma went on to make 37 before he was caught off the left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie.

Nine wickets were down for 87, with Tafadzwa Tsiga playing a defensive innings.

The last man to bat, Faraz Akram, showed a willingness to take on the bowlers with some good strokes, though, and he hit up 19 off 28 balls, taking the score to 122 before he was caught at slip off Roston Chase.

Tsiga was left unbeaten, having faced 95 balls, more than any of his team-mates, in scoring his 21 runs.

In the little time remaining the West Indians opted for more batting practice rather than enforce what would probably have been a rather futile follow-on.

Akram had the satisfaction of removing Raymon Reifer, who opened the batting with Tagenarine Chanderpaul, caught at the wicket by Tsiga for one.

William Mashinge dismissed Nkrumah Bonner the same way for 13, while Chanderpaul plodded his way to 23 off 83 balls before retiring. Jermaine Blackwood provided the only real entertainment of the innings by scoring 34 not out off 49 balls.

As soon as the umpires called the players off the field for bad light, the two captains decided to shake hands and end the match as a draw, with the tourists’ score 82 for two wickets.