India vs Zimbabwe (AP Photo)

CHENNAI: With India’s T20 World Cup semifinal hopes on the line, their fans will pray for a big win against Zimbabwe on Thursday and hope that Blessing Muzarabani stays at arm’s length. At 6ft 8in, Zimbabwe’s pace spearhead in this World Cup has been hard to miss. The 29-year-old leads Zimbabwe’s wicket column and is joint-second overall with 11 wickets, with an economy rate of 7.06.He also set up Zimbabwe’s win over Australia with a four-wicket burst. The lanky bowler has operated in the hardest phases of a T20 innings — taking the new ball up front and returning at the death — and has looked effective in both. His height gives him natural bounce but it is his discipline, backed by changes of pace, that has made it difficult for batters to line him up.

Zimbabwe head coach Justin Sammons and off-spinning allrounder Ryan Burl were quick to credit Muzarabani’s impact and resilience. He spent four to six months out before the tournament due to a back injury and Burl felt the bowler deserved more credit for how quickly he has found his rhythm again.“He had a lot of doubts coming in, with his own body and how he was feeling. The success that he has had with the ball has been amazing. It’s not something that has only just come about now. He has been doing this in international cricket previously. He’s one of those bowlers that’s obviously very tall and does kind of come a little bit from beyond the perpendicular. So jagging the ball back into the righthanders and across the lefties with that steep bounce poses a challenge for the batters. I’m a lot happier knowing that he’s on my team and not on the opposition,” Burl said.For Sammons, what separates Muzarabani is not just his height but the consistency with which he hits his areas. “He’s been brilliant for us. It’s so good to see him come back and hit the ground running. He’s been really good in the control of his length and his line, so he’s not given the batters too many free, easy boundary balls.If they look for the boundary, there’s an element of risk that they’ve had to take,” the coach said.