Zimbabwe beat Netherlands to stay in hunt for main draw

Zimbabwe kept themselves in contention for a spot in the main draw of the ICC World Twenty20 Championships, beating Netherlands by five wickets in a Group B qualifying match here today.

Chasing 141, the Zimbabweans overcame some hiccups to reach 146 for five in 20 overs to stay afloat in the competition after losing their opening match.

Hamilton Masakadza (43 off 45 balls) and man of the match skipper Brendan Taylor (49 off 39 balls) were the stars of the chase after fall of wickets in quick succession caused some anxiety in the Zimbabwean camp.

For the Netherlands Pieter Seelaar picked two for nine in his fantastic two overs.

Earlier, after electing bat first, the Netherlands top-order crumbled spectacularly before Tom Cooper's 58-ball 72 took them to a respectable total.

The Dutch were reeling at 35 for four before Cooper came to their rescue, helped by some decent contributions from the lower-half of the line-up.

Tom Cooper combined with his brother Ben (20) to put together 52 runs for the fifth wicket which steadied the team's innings.

After Ben was dismissed by Natsai Mushangwe, holing out to Tinashe Panyangara, Tom found another steady partner in Mudassar Bukhari (14 not out). Both batsmen remained unbeaten with Tom striking nine fours and a six in his impressive knock.

The two combined for 53 runs to take the Netherlands past the 100-run mark.