Zimbabwe settle the issue in style

This had been billed as the match that did not matter: a team, Zimbabwe, who had already qualified for the final next Saturday and another whose chances of ousting England as the other finalist were a mathematical long shot and no more.

Instead, Chester-le-Street got the match it deserved for producing a brace of belting pitches over the weekend.

Against the odds and with the highest score of the tournament, Zimbabwe settled the issue beyond doubt, and in truly magnificent fashion at that, winning by six wickets with five deliveries remaining. Ninety runs had come from the final nine overs and 47 from the last four.

After 23 overs of their innings, Zimbabwe, at 104 for four and chasing an improbable 288, were out of it as West Indies capitalised on some memorable batting from Sherwin Campbell (105), Brian Lara (87) and Wavell Hinds (42) by bowling and fielding in a disciplined fashion.

But they had reckoned without Murray Goodwin and Grant Flower, for from a desperate position the pair fashioned an unbroken fifth-wicket partnership of 186, scored at an average of almost seven runs an over.

Flower it was who struck the winning runs by belting Reon King over mid-off and on to the boundary, leaving him four runs short of a century, an innings from just 87 balls and containing eight fours and as six.

It might without quibble have taken the man-of-the-match award. Instead it went to Goodwin who remained unbeaten on 112 from 137 balls.

West Indies lost their composure under pressure as Goodwin and Flower found the boundary and ran their runs vigorously, mixing aggression with common-sense. None of the West Indian bowlers had the nous or ability to halt it and, with the game almost up, Jimmy Adams was forced to use Chris Gayle's off spin to bowl the penultimate over. It yielded 11 runs and that was about that.

Between the innings, West Indies must, with justification, have thought they had the game sewn up. Their innings had been given early impetus by Hinds and Campbell with a first-wicket partnership of 86.

Campbell and Lara then put together what ought to have been the definitive stand of the match, 173 in 25 overs, before Lara was bowled by Dirk Viljoen, trying to cut a straight ball, retribution for the left-arm spinner who had earlier been savaged by Lara for 22 in an over, including two sixes and two fours.