Zimbabwe vs Afghanistan | 1st ODI | December 17, 2024

[Googly]

I think Jonty is wrong about BC, he looks very organised in Logan cup, knows where his off stump is (contrary to what he says), leaves well, knows his scoring areas etc. He's real good at cutting and pulling as well.
He's played a high standard of cricket for years. We've had this contentious debate before, but I'm of the firm opinion that County 2's bowling is of a better standard than our franchise. Not only that, he's played Ones a number of times. I've seen him play some sharp county cricket. He's not gifted, but he's solid. Most of those guys aren't actually, they're just organised, mentally strong and play percentage cricket. Gifted batters are like rocking horse shit.
He looked pretty ordinary yesterday, but still scored more than Bennett, Myers and Williams combined! He spent longer at the crease to look ordinary
What he is susceptible to is a ball going across him.
He also struggles to change gear a bit, but his pull shot off a not too short a ball helps him score. Just my opinion.
He also knows he's in last chance saloon. That's pressure of the highest order. If anyone thinks he will go back to Domestic for 2 years if he has a bad run they're dreaming. This is it for him, shit or bust. He has to master his nerves and hope he has the bare minimum skill set for international cricket.

Let's face it, none of them looked remotely comfortable in very testing conditions. The zero footwork by all of them was alarming.

Our problem is absolutely the lower standard of bowling we face at school, club and domestic. Even Blessing and Richie will let you off the hook.
The only way to prepare is have really challenging net sessions, on grass if possible. Practice harder than you play!
You need new balls (expensive) and good throwers and a supply of good bats because new balls kill bats. The problem here is the grass nets are usually beyond atrocious, if not dangerous, and you can end up undoing some good form by being really uncertain of the bounce.
You can only do so much indoor. It can be too easy against seam and the spin is usually completely unrealistic bounce and not enuf turn. It just comes off the deck differently with machine balls.

If you're in a team net you don't get enough time.
All good batters usually have their own practice regimes and the team stuff is extra. I see a lot of good batters stop netting if they're playing well, they get superstitious about wasting form.

This is why I always say we are in the very weird position where someone with real skills has to look at our batters and identify the guys with that rare ability to play up. Making runs in domestic is obviously the bare minimum, but it it actually a red herring. It's THE main reason why we are going to be stuck with guys on 100 caps averaging 19, but can score hundreds in domestic.

Those guys, if they're not already in the team, should be in the HPC under a Houghton in their spare time
Maybe in another lifetime. Tick Tock.

[Googly]

There is going to be an update on Ryan Higgins today. Watch this space. 50/50 apparantly.

See i told you.
I've watched Higgins plenty of times. That's an act of desperation by ZC, we've got better players here.
Not bad as an all-rounder.

[Pat_Bee]

This is it for him, shit or bust.

thats when the best performances come if you’re any good.

[Pat_Bee]

There is going to be an update on Ryan Higgins today. Watch this space. 50/50 apparantly.

See i told you.
I've watched Higgins plenty of times. That's an act of desperation by ZC, we've got better players here.
Not bad as an all-rounder.

Doesn’t make sense. Like we can’t play our own varungu because they’re competing for places with Burl/Ervine/Raza/Williams. drum roll please mr mawoza and everyone say hello to our new marungu from England who’s competing for the exact same places

[ZIMDOGGY]

This is why I always say we are in the very weird position where someone with real skills has to look at our batters and identify the guys with that rare ability to play up.

You are not wrong at all and Andy flower has said that in Zim, the only way a batsman can learn is on the job in internationals.
It gets tricky though, because then you get accusations of favouritism etc.
You could argue ZC have just done exactly that with Maposa and that guy who hit the boundary in the T20 and has had praise gushed on him. The other argument is exactly favouritism., and nepotism and what not.
Then there is perspective, one guy thinks he is looking at the next Brian Lara, someone else might think not, and then the fans are 'huh'? especially when they do go straight to international and fail.
ZC brings that on themselves because of history, unprofessionalism, corruption and lack of trust.

[Pat_Bee]

Even then the guys with skills get let down by the system unless they’re super motivated in themselves. Wez has the talent but neither him nor ZC have done anything with it

Identifying it is the easy part, it’s what comes next that matters though.

[55727835]

There is going to be an update on Ryan Higgins today. Watch this space. 50/50 apparantly.

anymore on this one mate?

[jontym87]

I think Jonty is wrong about BC, he looks very organised in Logan cup, knows where his off stump is (contrary to what he says), leaves well, knows his scoring areas etc. He's real good at cutting and pulling as well.
He's played a high standard of cricket for years. We've had this contentious debate before, but I'm of the firm opinion that County 2's bowling is of a better standard than our franchise. Not only that, he's played Ones a number of times. I've seen him play some sharp county cricket. He's not gifted, but he's solid. Most of those guys aren't actually, they're just organised, mentally strong and play percentage cricket. Gifted batters are like rocking horse shit.
He looked pretty ordinary yesterday, but still scored more than Bennett, Myers and Williams combined! He spent longer at the crease to look ordinary
What he is susceptible to is a ball going across him.
He also struggles to change gear a bit, but his pull shot off a not too short a ball helps him score. Just my opinion.
He also knows he's in last chance saloon. That's pressure of the highest order. If anyone thinks he will go back to Domestic for 2 years if he has a bad run they're dreaming. This is it for him, shit or bust. He has to master his nerves and hope he has the bare minimum skill set for international cricket.

Let's face it, none of them looked remotely comfortable in very testing conditions. The zero footwork by all of them was alarming.

Our problem is absolutely the lower standard of bowling we face at school, club and domestic. Even Blessing and Richie will let you off the hook.
The only way to prepare is have really challenging net sessions, on grass if possible. Practice harder than you play!
You need new balls (expensive) and good throwers and a supply of good bats because new balls kill bats. The problem here is the grass nets are usually beyond atrocious, if not dangerous, and you can end up undoing some good form by being really uncertain of the bounce.
You can only do so much indoor. It can be too easy against seam and the spin is usually completely unrealistic bounce and not enuf turn. It just comes off the deck differently with machine balls.

If you're in a team net you don't get enough time.
All good batters usually have their own practice regimes and the team stuff is extra. I see a lot of good batters stop netting if they're playing well, they get superstitious about wasting form.

This is why I always say we are in the very weird position where someone with real skills has to look at our batters and identify the guys with that rare ability to play up. Making runs in domestic is obviously the bare minimum, but it it actually a red herring. It's THE main reason why we are going to be stuck with guys on 100 caps averaging 19, but can score hundreds in domestic.

Those guys, if they're not already in the team, should be in the HPC under a Houghton in their spare time
Maybe in another lifetime. Tick Tock.

Googly just to clear the air. My reference was in whiteball cricket. He had no clue. I have watched him play over years he is a better/decent red ball player (at least in domestic cricket). Is he good enough for international to say Zimbabwe has a strong opener? I don’t think so but I would like to be proven wrong.

In Logan Cup he does well but look at the attacks he is facing. We cannot read much into that because 90% of the bowlers in our domestic FC are mediocre. So one can flatter to deceive then gets exposed at international level. Only reason why the likes of Kaia looked decent is not because of playing domestic cricket in Zim but being exposed to Grade cricket in Aus where he actually face better bowlers than we have in our national team and domestic setups. Another good example to show our domestic is weak Antum is scoring bucket loads of runs but doesn’t even make grade cricket level in Aus.

Food for thought.

[Googly]

I dont think anyone is arguing with you.
Most are agreeing that exposure elsewhere to a better bowling attack makes a huge difference, but as you say definitely doesn't guarantee you success at international level, but is likely to get you runs at domestic level at some point to get you noticed.
That's why I keep repeating that it is essential for someone with skills to identify the guys someone can work with because our domestic doesn't come close to being a stepping stone to international cricket. The guys they've picked so far have come up short.

Naqvi has had a very mediocre first half of the season. Curran had an ordinary time of it prior to this year. Welch made fokoro last season. Byrom hasn't set it alight when he's been here, neither has Schadendorf. These good guys are not guaranteed runs. Both Welch's are better white ball players than Curran yet Curran has made more 50 over runs so far this season. The fact someone can't see that is astonishing.
All credit to BC, he's looking organised and whatever thought processes he's got going are working.

[aydee]

I dont think anyone is arguing with you.
Most are agreeing that exposure elsewhere to a better bowling attack makes a huge difference, but as you say definitely doesn't guarantee you success at international level, but is likely to get you runs at domestic level at some point to get you noticed.
That's why I keep repeating that it is essential for someone with skills to identify the guys someone can work with because our domestic doesn't come close to being a stepping stone to international cricket. The guys they've picked so far have come up short.

Naqvi has had a very mediocre first half of the season. Curran had an ordinary time of it prior to this year. Welch made fokoro last season. Byrom hasn't set it alight when he's been here, neither has Schadendorf. These good guys are not guaranteed runs. Both Welch's are better white ball players than Curran yet Curran has made more 50 over runs so far this season. The fact someone can't see that is astonishing.
All credit to BC, he's looking organised and whatever thought processes he's got going are working.

Naqvi is 3rd on the FC run scoring charts, with 344 at an average of 49. That isn't "very mediocre", is it? Down a little on the last couple of years, but in no way poor. Far better than the likes of Campbell and Kaitano, who are in the test squad at the moment.