Zimbabwe 271 (Williams 77, Madande 52, Madhevere 43, Shariz 5-43) beat Netherlands 270 (O’Dowd 81, Cooper 74, Madhevere 3-36, Raza 3-39) by one run

In a match that ebbed and flowed right till the final ball, Zimbabwe held their nerve to beat Netherlands by one run in the second ODI in Harare. The win helped them level the three-match series 1-1.

Earlier, Zimbabwe started well with Craig Ervine and Madhevere adding 61 in 11 overs for the opening stand before the former was cleaned up by Colin Ackermann for 39 off 42. Gary Ballance struck three fours but was dismissed for 14. Shariz then got into the act, getting rid of Madhevere and Sikandar Raza in the space of three balls to stifle Zimbabwe. In his next over, the legspinner induced a top edge of Ryan Burl’s blade to make it 120 for 5.

Williams and Madande revived the innings by adding 104 runs off 93 balls for the sixth wicket. Williams struck 77 off 73 balls, while Madande hit his second successive half-century. But Shariz struck back. He first removed Williams, who top-edged a sweep to deep-backward square leg, and two balls later trapped Brad Evans lbw to complete his five-for.

O’Dowd gave Netherlands a quick start even though his opening partner Vikramjit Singh managed only 14 off 25. O’Dowd and Cooper then kept the Zimbabwe bowlers at bay for 25.2 overs, adding 125 runs for the second wicket. But then Cooper was run-out, and a few overs later, Raza had O’Dowd lbw.

Klaassen and Ryan Klein, though, made the Zimbabwe camp very nervous in the final over but failed to close the game.