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Watch: In Harare in 1996/97, Eddo Brandes England paved with a five wicket haul including a hat-trick while Zimbabwe swept the series 3-0.
It’s not clear why England got the best out of Brandes, arguably cricket’s most celebrated chicken breeder. In four ODIs against them, Brandes took 11 wickets at 9.27 each, including 4-21 in their famous 1992 World Cup win and a career high 5-28 in the match in question.
Against other teams, Brandes claimed 59 wickets in 55 ODIs at 36.68.
Zimbabwe were in fine form in the series. Just four years into full member status, they held England to a 0–0 draw (although the second Test match expired with England with four wickets in hand).
Having already clinched the three-match ODI series with two close wins (by two wickets and seven runs), they were now looking at a clean sweep. Here, Grant Flower (62) and Alistair Campbell (80) added 73 for the second wicket before Andy Flower’s 35 from 30 balls helped Zimbabwe post 249-7.
It was a huge target, as no team had scored more than 200 in their first two ODIs. England were 9-0 up when Brandes came on to bowl the last ball of the third over. He was down the side leg, but Nick Knight had a touch and Andy Flower completed an excellent drop catch to his left.
After two runs it got to the other end. Brandes now bowled one who bowled in line and held his line to trap John Crawley before leg. The next ball caught the outside edge of Nasser Hussain’s bat and flew towards the first slip but Andy Flower dived in to give Brandes and Zimbabwe their first ODI hat-trick.
Eight seasons ago, Brandes had also become the first Zimbabwean to complete a first-class hat-trick, for Zimbabwe against New Zealand’s young internationals. Now, against England, he soon caught Alec Stewart and Michael Atherton too, taking first wickets.
Brandes finished with 5-28, and it took a ninth wicket stand of 41 between Robert Croft (30) and Alan Mullally (20) to take them to 118. This remains England’s lowest ODI total against Zimbabwe, as well the only 3-0 sweep against them. At that point, this was also England’s lowest total against Zimbabwe.
Twenty four days later, Brandes won 5-41 in an ODI against India at Paarl.
Watch Eddo Brandes hat-trick here:
