Williams hails home-support as Zimbabwe record second-biggest ODI victory in history

Sean Williams' majestic 174 and Zimbabwe's all-round dominance secured a crushing win of 304 runs over the USA in the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifiers 2023 at Harare Sports Club on Monday.

The colossal winning margin fell just shy of the men’s ODI record which India posted six months ago in their 317-run demolition of Sri Lanka in Thiruvananthapuram.

Sean Williams's put up a majestic display of batting as he slammed 174 from 101 deliveries, guiding the tournament hosts to a total iof 408.

The U.S. were never in the chase and lost regular wickets as they were bowled all out for 104 in 25.1 overs, including three comical runouts.

Zimbabwe finished the group stage of the qualifiers unbeaten having also overcome West Indies, Netherlands and Nepal. The two tournament finalists will qualify for the 50-over World Cup in India later this year.

"We've found our momentum and we're looking to carry it forward ... having the crowd behind us is like having a 12th man," Williams said after being named player of the match.

Chasing the target, the USA got off to a shaky start as they lost their opening batter in the second over of the game and crumbled in the face of Zimbabwe's massive total.

Richard Ngrava struck first, having Steven Taylor (0) caught behind in the third over and then got Sushant Modani (6) to nick one behind the wicket in his very next over.

The USA were in trouble after skipper Monank Patel was out in the sixth over to Brad Evans.

In the space of nine deliveries, Aaron Jones and Shayan Jahangir were run-out while Gajanand Singh was caught lbw by Raza, compounding the North American side's woes.

At 45/6, it appeared like the USA would coLLapse even before the 25-0ver mark.

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Brief score: Zimbabwe 408/6 (Sean Williams 174, Ryan Burl 47; Abhishek Paradkar 3-78) vs USA 104 (Abhishek Paradkar 24, Jasdeep Singh 21; Sikandar Raza 2-15). (ANI)