[Match Thread] Australia vs Zimbabwe

[mdm]

6 williams wooo.

[eugene]

This is becoming rather embarrasing.

[maehara]

Top order failures again. The bowlers can do whatever they like to set things up, but with batting this unreliable it's all wasted.

So just what did Brian Lara do with the batsmen in Dubai for the silly money he was supposed to have been paid to be "batting consultant"? Because I'm not seeing any benefit.

[eugene]

Is there ever a match where both our bowling and batting fire at the same time. One match we bowl well but the batting disappoints, the next match the opposite happens. I wish we could decide if our batting or bowling is the problem. I am guessing that both of them are a problem.

[aydee]

Is there ever a match where both our bowling and batting fire at the same time. One match we bowl well but the batting disappoints, the next match the opposite happens. I wish we could decide if our batting or bowling is the problem. I am guessing that both of them are a problem.

Only the spinners are genuinely at home at this level. What that means is that batsmen and seamers do show some signs that they can cope, but for the most part will be inconsistent. Just look at the averages, and remember the number of games aainst Bangladesh/Ireland/Kenya. They are not the numbers of players who are capable of contributing consistently. Improving is a long, slow road. Anyone who thought that a couple of chats with Mr. Lara were going to transform players overnight was dreaming.

[Boundary]

The fight we showed while fielding is gone. I'm disappointed with the top order but I like the idea of Taylor and Coventry, the potential is there. But another cluster of wicket falls is unacceptable. Maybe after the world cup H Masakadza will come back.

[CrimsonAvenger]

Utseya bowls, Utseya bats. Cremer bowls, Cremer bats. Price bowls, Price inspires. And no one else delivers. How long can it go like this?

[brmtaylor.com admin]

It wasn't a game we were expected to win, so I guess we can take some solace in bowling well and batting to a (barely) respectable total thanks to our lower middle order.

There are a lot of positives we can take out of the game; our spin trio took it to the top ODI team in the world. Our fielding was fantastic, and with the exception of a couple of Mpofu overs the captaincy was good (the field placements in particular were inspired).

We can even take something out of the batting - we know we can play better. If any of Taylor, Coventry or Taibu had gone on to make 60 or 70 it would have been a completely different ball game. I don't think there is any quick fix for the Zimbabwe Collapse™. 4/40 or whatever we were means game over. I'd like to think that once we return to Tests the batsmen will become more patient, learn to leave (or not hook from a metre outside off ) the good balls as second nature and that will transfer over to the ODI arena as well.

We certainly can't afford to drop the Canada or Kenya games. Beyond that, I think we need to target the New Zealand game as a realistic contest. We know from their recent Bangladesh tour that they have struggled on subcontinent pitches and if our spin trio can strangle Australia they should be able to do something similar to the Kiwi's.

[sloandog]

Yeah I agree. And i must say, I was very impressed with the way in which we went about our bowling and fielding today.
Price, Utsea and Graeeme Cremer showed us that they're the heartbeat of our bowling attack, and if you add Greg Lamb to that list, it looks even more dangerous. Mpofu bowled well upfront, but needs to get the ball as full as he can towards the end. His pace impressed me though, clocking up to 87clicks in his first spell, and that run out was 1 in a million!

Batting wise, nah, we batted poor.
Coventry showed us why he's the most frustrating batter we've got. So much talent, but seems to fail. Campbell wasn't too impressed with his shot I can tell you
Sean Williams, Brendan Taylor, Tatenda Taibu and Chagabva were all out to very poor shots, and we have to pull our socks up on the batting front if we're to progress...
But i have to agree with BRM, if we can strangle the Aussies, we can do it against anybody, namely the kiwis

[bayhaus]

Our batsmen are couch potatoes. They watch our bowlers bowl then rush back to the watch our bowlers bat.
I think we threw away a genuine chance 2 beat Aus here. Our guys are not hungry enough. Bang i bet could hav closed ths deal had they been in ths position.