Watch: Scotland’s Chris Sole hits 150kph, smashes stumps in match-winning World Cup Qualifier opening spell to knock Zimbabwe out
Watch: Scotland seamer Chris Sole put on a breathtaking display of new-ball bowling in the Super Six match against Zimbabwe in the World Cup Qualifier in Bulawayo, breaching both the 150kph mark as well as batters’ defence to castle the stumps on more than one occasion.
In an all-important Super Six match between Zimbabwe and Scotland, Zimbabwe won the toss and elected to field first. Scotland got off to a slow but steady start. At 102-1 after 25 overs, they looked set to go big in the second half of the innings and get close to 280-300.
However, some smart bowling from Sean Williams (3-41), coupled with poor judgement by the Scottish batters, both in shot-making and running, meant that they could only get to 234 from their 50 overs.
Six Scotland batters scored more than 20, but none crossed 50. Zimbabwe would have been pleased with the score they had managed to restrict Scotland to, but the momentum shifted back to the away team as soon as the run-chase began.
Sole, who had taken eight wickets from five games in the Qualifier before today (July 4), started with a peach of an outswinger at a back of a length. Zimbabwe wicketkeeper Joylord Gumbie only managed to find a faint nick through to his Scottish counterpart Matthew Cross.
Sole kept getting quicker and quicker as his spell went on. He regularly bowled over 140 kph and even breached the 150 kph barrier several times. Craig Ervine and Sean Williams have been Zimbabwe’s stalwarts for years. Sole not only got both rid of both of them, he got them in style.
He beat Ervine with a quick inswinger from round the wicket that castled into his middle and off stumps after a deflection off his pads in the third over of the innings. He then beat Williams’ outside edge from over the wicket as the ball knocked his off stump back, leaving Zimbabwe in all sorts of trouble at 29-3 in the seventh over.
Sole finished his new ball burst of five overs with figures of 3-20, breaking open the game for Scotland, who eventually lost by 31 runs.
Watch Chris Sole breathe fire in one of the fastest new ball spells by an Associate bowler
First wicket:
View this post on Instagram
Second wicket:
View this post on Instagram
Third wicket:
View this post on Instagram
Subscribe to the Wisden Cricket YouTube channel for post-match analysis, player interviews, and much more.
