ZC Team of the Decade

[jaybro]

H Masakadza
S Raza
C Ervine
B Taylor ( c)
S Williams
T Taibu ( wkb )
A Blignaut
R Price
K Jarvis
B Vettori
T Chatara

Blignaut played 4 matches ......

He represented Zimbabwe in 2010 and has got better stat then some quota advantage takers

Check the link mate he played 4 ODIs that’s it

[jaybro]

Well done CA great stats there

[Jemisi]

Great topic! Went through some of the stats for the decade and here is a collation of some interesting numbers (including all 3 international formats)

Across formats, this decade:

Batting:

Most runs in the decade: Hamilton Masakadza, 6170
Most sixes in the decade: Hamilton Masakadza, 133
Most fours in the decade: Hamilton Masakadza, 628
Most fifties in the decade: Hamilton Masakadza, 34
Highest individual score of the decade: Brendan Taylor, 171
Most hundreds in the decade: Brendan Taylor, 15
Best batting average in the decade (with significant number of matches played): Brendan Taylor, 37.32
Most ducks in the decade: Brendan Taylor, 17

Bowling:
Most wickets in the decade: Graeme Cremer, 164
Most maidens bowled in the decade: Tendai Chatara, 134
Best bowling average in the decade (with significant number of matches played): Tendai Chatara, 28.88
Best economy rate in the decade (with significant number of matches played): Raymond Price, 3.89
Best bowling figures in an innings in the decade: Luke Jongwe, 5/6
Most five wicket hauls in the decade: Graeme Cremer, Kyle Jarvis, Brian Vitori, 3 each

Fielding:
Most catches in the decade: Hamilton Masakadza, 79
Most catches in an innings: Craig Ervine, 4

Wicket-keeping:
Most catches by a wicket-keeper in the decade: Brendan Taylor, 74
Most stumpings by a wicket-keeper in the decade: Tatenda Taibu, 20
Most dismissals in an innings in the decade: Brendan Taylor, Richmond Mutumbami, Regis Chakabva, 5 each
Highest dismissals per innings in the decade: Regis Chakabva, 1.3

Partnerships:
Most runs as a partnership in the decade: Hamilton Masakadza and Brendan Taylor, 2733
Best partnership average in the decade (with significant number of matches played): Brendan Taylor and Sean Williams, 47.32
Highest partnership in an innings in the decade: Hamilton Masakadza and Sikandar Raza, 224

Other trivia:
Only players with 1000+ runs and 100+ wickets in the decade: Seam Williams (4070, 110), Graeme Cremer (1228, 164)
Only bowler other than Price to have bowled 300+ overs in this decade and have an economy of less than 4: Hamilton Masakadza, 3.94

Thanks Crimson!

[CrimsonAvenger]

So basically this was a decade dominated by Brendan Taylor and Hamilton Masakadza. You name a stat and they feature there. Good contributions by Graeme Cremer, Tendai Chatara and Sean Williams too, as well as Tatenda Taibu and Raymond Price in the early part of the decade. It must send a shiver down the spine to think of what awaits us in the next decade with Hamilton gone and Taylor not left with too much in the tank.

Back to the topic, this makes the choice of my XI pretty easy. If it was a tossup between Sibanda and Taibu in the batting lineup, it is easy to go with Taibu who averages a healthy 33+ in this decade with over 1000 runs, and the keeping part is unquestionable. I would also make him the skipper ahead of Taylor because I think he read the game better than anyone else in the post 2004 era. I'd also instruct him to keep those reverse sweeps at home before coming to the matches .

Raza has to open in that case along with Hamilton, and they hold the decade record for the best partnership anyway.

The only other tossup is for the 4th bowler, with Chatara, Jarvis and Cremer making the top 3 with a hale and healthy Chigumbura playing at 7 as a proper all-rounder. We have Williams, Hamilton and Raza to roll their arms over too. So, the 4th bowler is decided based on format and pitch conditions.

Shorter format or spin pitches: Raymond Price
Longer format or pacey pitches: Chris Mpofu

The remaining member from these two will be the 12th man.

Here's my XI:

Hamilton Masakadza
Sikandar Raza
Craig Ervine
Brendan Taylor
Sean Williams
Tatenda Taibu (C & WK)
Elton Chigumbura
Graeme Cremer
Kyle Jarvis
Raymond Price / Chris Mpofu
Tendai Chatara

Other squad members:

Vusi Sibanda
Tinashe Panyangara
PJ Moor

The last spot in the squad was a tossup between Utseya, Waller, Chibhabha, Tiripano and Moor. Waller has most runs out of these but a sad average. We have enough spinners and its verity in the lineup so there is no need for Utseya too. Tiripano has very similar averages to Utseya and is not very useful when you already have a well-oiled Chigumbura in the squad. It was down to Chibhabha and Moor. they both have 1500+ runs at an average of 24+. With enough bowling options already in the squad and the grit shown by Moor in test matches he has played, decided to go with Moor ahead of Chibhabha.

I never thought someone like Moor could make the 15 squad of the decade, but that shows the state towards the end. May be he is the one to carry us to the next decade like Taibu did in the previous one.

[CrimsonAvenger]

Wow, interesting stats, Crimson. I'll need more time to digest this, but one stat that immediately stands out for me is that Taibu heads the list for most stumpings although he retired early in the decade. I think we could at least add another 20 wickets to Cramer's tally had Taibu been behind the stumps longer.

Yeah Taibu was just brilliant with the gloves. Even I was surprised when I saw those stats. In fact Taibu's batting average in this decade is second only to Taylor too, with 33.14 over 53 matches and 1500+ runs.