England cruise to series sweep

England secured a comfortable 5-0 series whitewash over Zimbabwe with a seven-wicket victory in the final match at the Queens Sports Club on Saturday.

The defeat condemned Zimbabwe to their 12th consecutive loss, the worst sequence of defeats they have suffered, going back to July against India and the West Indies.

England reached their target of 229 with six and a half overs to spare. Opener Nick Knight again provided the backbone of the England innings with 80 not out, his third half century of the series.

Knight, who hit six fours during his innings, received strong support from captain Nasser Hussain (47) and Paul Collingwood (56 not out).

His innings was tempered with caution in-between fluid strokeplay as he passed the 300-run mark in the series to end with an average of 100.66.

Earlier Grant Flower scored 104 as Zimbabwe were bowled out for 228 with three balls of their 50 overs remaining.

Flower shared in a 70-run third-wicket stand with his brother Andy, a 68-run fourth-wicket partnership with Craig Wishart and a 59-run fifth-wicket stand with Dion Ebrahim.

Zimbabwe were well poised at 204 for four but lost six wickets for the addition of only 24 runs in the last eight overs.

Fast bowler Chris Silverwood became the final member of the England squad to be used in the series and immediately made an impression.

Television Replay
With the final ball of his first over, he had Zimbabwe captain Alistair Campbell caught by wicketkeeper James Foster down the leg side for three.

Television replays showed that the ball had not touched the bat, but Silverwood took advantage of his luck and dismissed Stuart Carlisle (0) with the first delivery of his next over.

Carlisle hurriedly attempted to cut the ball, only managing to top edge it to third man where Mark Ramprakash took a routine outfield catch.

The hat-trick ball almost resulted in a run out as Grant Flower played the delivery behind square on the off-side and set off for a quick single.

He was sent back by Andy, but was well-short of his ground as Paul Collingwood shied at the stumps, missing by inches.

Silverwood ended with three for 43 from nine overs, while off-spinner Jeremy Snape and seamer Andy Flintoff wrapped up the Zimbabwe lower order.

Zimbabwe were again weak in the bowling department and were unable to put the tourists' batsmen under pressure.

Collingwood went to his half century off 43 balls, including four boundaries and two sixes, adding to his 77 in the fourth match.

Hussain and Knight put on 87 runs for the second wicket after Marcus Trescothick was caught at midwicket off spinner Doug Marillier for 29 from only 25 balls.

Hussain was caught at backward square leg off slow left-arm Dirk Viljoen, but by then the match was over as a contest.

For Zimbabwe coach Carl Rackemann it was a disappointing way to end just over a year in charge of the team as he makes way for fellow Australian Geoff Marsh.

Mail Cricket Editor