Zimbabwe vs Afghanistan | First Test | 26 December 2024 - 30 December 2024 | Queens Sports Club

[sloandog]

Man, Ray Price was a legend. I remember him full on sledging De Villiers in 2009/10 during an ODI. He saved his best for Bangladesh though. A bit of Razor Ray wouldn't go amiss with some of our current boys.

Chisoro actually had a bit about him

[Jemisi]

Ervine passes Houghton

[Googly]

This Zia is a full on chucker. !!!

[tgk]

Both pushing 40 and they're running so well

[Googly]

I thought that was a bit premature. I'd have gone another 5 or 6 overs. Another wicket or two and we'd have potentially been in trouble.

[Jemisi]

Phew

[Googly]

Ya Hazmat is right. The rain yesterday is what changed the game. He said they were going to declare and have a bowl at us for 30 minutes.
They could just have easily declared before lunch knowing that we were batting last, but obviously that would have been way too much of a gamble.

That game was not as boring as everyone thought. That could have gone very badly for us had it not been for a good opening partnership. Again poor captaincy from the Afghans with bowling changes. If Overlord plays next game they should bring on Zahir pretty quickly. He's got 2 days to study some footage and come up with a better plan.

[andruid]

Phew

You can say that again.

[TapsC2]

I wonder how many changes they are going to make. Quite a few options actually. Surely Ngarava will play. Does that mean Blessing rests again? Nyauchi is an option as well for Gwandu. If Ngarava plays then is there a need for Newman? I guess the kind of pitch they prepare will matter

Does Brandon get another game? Myers too. I don't think he did enough. Gumbie for Mayavo ? There is very little time until the next test so they might be forced to make a few changes

[Kriterion_BD]

Well that concludes an eventful Test match. Hopefully there will be a result in the next game.

My observations:

1) Zimbabwe didn't get outclassed. Overall, Afghanistan slightly outperformed Zimbabwe, but there wasn't a massive gap between the sides. At least not evident from the scorecard. 700 slightly outdoes 580 odd is what the cricket world will see. On the other hand the Afghans may be slightly disappointed, but it seems they've got a pretty weak seam attack in red ball cricket, and this pitch was probably the flattest anyone has seen in 30 years.

2) Both teams will looking to find bowling answers. No matter how flat a wicket, you can't concede 600+ runs and blame it all on the pitch or dropped catches. Captaincy has to be more dynamic, and bowlers have to adapt as well.

3) It was a good outing for the batters. Real confidence boost for guys like Bennett and Curran, but also for Ervine and Rahmat. Sediqullah and Myers will feel they missed out as young guns, but they've got an opportunity to make amends in the 2nd Test.

4) I keep saying it like a broken record, but Zimbabwe/Ireland/Afghanistan need to play more Tests, and in 2024 they have finally started to do that, thank God. They should ideally be playing 5-6 Tests a year, but even 3-4 a year is not terrible given how few all 3 teams have played for the last several years. I think all 3 teams have quite a few Tests lined up in 2025, and that is exactly what they need to be doing.