Zimbabwe’s Bennet gets philosophical on missing his hundred by 3 runs against India
CHENNAI: Zimbabwe opener Brian Bennett fell three short of a hundred and was stranded on an unbeaten 97 in the last ball of the 2-th over. His team lost to India by 72 runs at the ICC T20 World Cup. After a point the asking rate went so Zimbabwe could not have won unless that was an extraordinary turnaround. But that was not too be.
Bennett the miss in his stride and insisted that it was part of the game. “Yeah, it would have been nice. Cricket is just like that sometimes, I’m not always going to get to that landmark. Just grateful for today, to get out there and put on a good innings, but couldn’t get over the line…250 (257) was going to be a tough one to win,” said Bennett after the gameThe 22-year old was able to score runs at one end. At the other end runs dried up and there was no partnerships. “I just told them when they came in, listen, if you see the ball, just hit the ball. Don’t worry about what I want, don’t worry about me, just you do your thing and then that’s what the conversations was about,” insisted the youngster. India scored 256 and Bennett agreed it was a huge task to chase down the target.
”Yeah, definitely. I think chasing 250, 260 is where it’s going to be very tough. The chance to just go out there and express yourself. Don’t worry too much about the scoreboard. Just be you. Play to your strengths. And if it comes off, it comes off. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. And today it didn’t said Bennett.
Bennett during his knock had the courage to counter India’s premier pacer Jasprit Bumrah in the 13th over, smashing a six over long-on to bring up his fifty.Despite the defeat, Bennett believed that his team would draw lot of positives from their maiden Super 8 appearance in the T20 World Cup. “It’s the first time Zimbabwe qualified to the Super 8s so obviously there’s been a lot of highs in tournaments so far, and for that we’re grateful. We’ve got one more game against South Africa, we’re going to try and learn as much as possible. We’ve learnt a lot from the last two games against West Indies and India today. So now it’s mainly just about learning and looking where we can improve as a team and as individuals as well. It’s not disappointing past two games, but there’s a lot of learning that’s been done and hopefully it will bear out in the future,” he signed off.