Hetmyer hammers 85 as West Indies thrash Zimbabwe
How Hetmyer hit an 85
- Published
Shimron Hetmyer made a stunning 85 off 34 balls as West Indies began their T20 World Cup Super 8 stage with an emphatic 107-run victory over Zimbabwe.
Hetmyer hit seven sixes and seven fours as he mixed finesse with power - at a strike rate of 250 - to help West Indies post a mammoth 254-6.
The left-handed Guyanese was dropped twice by Tashinga Musekiwa - on nine and 70 - before he was eventually caught at deep mid-wicket by Brian Bennett off experienced spinner Graeme Cremer.
Rovman Powell then upped the ante after a patient start to chip in with a 35-ball 59 before middle-order cameos from Sherfane Rutherford, Romario Shepherd and Jason Holder provided further impetus.
West Indies' total was the second-highest in T20 World Cup history - behind Sri Lanka's 260-6 against Kenya in 2007 - on what was a chastening day for Zimbabwe's attack, Cremer (9.50) the only player with an economy under 10.
No side had ever successfully chased more than 230 at the Wankhede Stadium in T20 internationals, or in the Indian Premier League, and Zimbabwe soon found themselves in trouble.
Akeal Hosein bowled Bennett, Zimbabwe's leading run-scorer, with a beauty for five, then three balls later snared Ryan Burl for a duck to leave the Chevrons reeling at 20-3 in the third over.
Fellow left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie ran through the Zimbabwe middle order en route to 4-28 - starting the run with a peach of a delivery to dismiss Dion Myers for 28.
With the game long gone, Brad Evans added some respectability to the margin of defeat with defiant late hitting - whacking five sixes in his 21-ball 43 - in a record 10th-wicket stand at a World Cup of 44 with Richard Ngarava.
Hetmyer masterful in Mumbai
In 69 T20 international innings, Shimron Hetmyer has now made nine half-centuries
Zimbabwe might have ruffled a few feathers in this World Cup with victories over Australia and Sri Lanka.
But the Chevrons well and truly had their wings clipped by Hetmyer and company as the boundaries were peppered at the Wankhede Stadium.
Hetmyer had looked in fine fettle in the group stage, chalking up scores of 64, 23, 46 not out and one.
The 29-year-old took it up a notch and played more astutely than perhaps the raw figures of the scorecard might indicate.
With a cocktail of intelligent farming of the strike, elegant drives and at times sheer brute force, he reached a half-century off 19 balls, which left Zimbabwe flummoxed.
It was the quickest by a West Indian at a World Cup - eclipsing his own record off 22 balls against Scotland earlier in the tournament.
Nobody has more than sixes than Hetmyer's 17 in this tournament, and while there was power in the strokeplay in this innings, it was more about sharp decisions over shot selection with the mind than pure muscle.
"I'm not overthinking my batting. Now I am trying to think less and the bat will now do the talking and I react [to] what's in front of me," Hetmyer said afterwards.
Zimbabwe rued dropping him twice, with the hapless Musekiwa wishing the Wankhede turf would swallow him up after he spilled two opportunities his team-mates would have expected him to take.
It might have been different had the first been held, although with strike rates of 238 (Rutherford), 210 (Shepherd) and 325 (Holder), possibly not.
Zimbabwe were never in the chase after Motie and Hosein turned the screw - West Indies' left-arm tweakers bagging seven of the wickets to fall.
The West Indies World Cup bandwagon rolls on after banking another impressive victory and the only concern is whether they are peaking too early.
Certainly on this evidence they will take some stopping.
'Lovely bit of bowling!' - Motie's wickets
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- Published16 August 2025
