[Match Thread] Zimbabwe vs Afghanistan: 4th ODI

[jaybro]

Zim back into 10th place, and Afg down to 12th. So close are the rankings.

Can't seperate Afghanistan, Ireland or Zimbabwe atm IMO this means we should be playing each other a lot more ......

[CrimsonAvenger]

Good win today. Nice to see Zimbabwe fighting back in a series for once.

Agree.

Can't seperate Afghanistan, Ireland or Zimbabwe atm IMO this means we should be playing each other a lot more ......

That actually means we should ideally be playing the likes of SL, BD and WI and try to snare points off them instead of losing points to AFG and IRL. a hard fought 2-3 loss to WI, SL and BD also helps create a gap to those two I suppose...

[Kriterion_BD]

Zim back into 10th place, and Afg down to 12th. So close are the rankings.

Can't seperate Afghanistan, Ireland or Zimbabwe atm IMO this means we should be playing each other a lot more ......

Zim and Afg will have played 14 bilateral ODIs in 18 months, thats plenty. Ireland are missing out for some reason, although they have 6 ODIs lined up next year against Australia, Pakistan, and SL. With their weather that will mean 2 results in shortened games with 4 no results or even outright abandonments.

Basically all teams should be playing more with everyone.

[bayhaus]

Can't seperate Afghanistan, Ireland or Zimbabwe atm IMO this means we should be playing each other a lot more ......

W've hosted AFG and they beat us at home and we immediately had a return fixture. Am sure they were confident of taking us out in Home conditions. Am sure Ire are itching to have a crack at us in Home conditions, I say lets go out there and settle this and take away any doubt. But I suspect ZC doesnt want to go to IRE.

[jaybro]

Things I noticed from yesterday's match .....

PJ Moor can hit the ball a long way, I'm pretty sure he's the biggest hitter we have after watching him yesterday. Not sure if he is a long term solution opening couldn't hit any balls through the field for 4 but I guess he will improve ......

Chamu although he has had a great 12 months is either a slow learner or just doesn't realise he needs to rotate the strike. I'm a huge fan of his but surely it's not that hard to push the ball into gaps and rotate the strike ??

Raza batting too low I think he needs to bat 4/5 such a waste him coming with less than 10 overs to go .....

Mutumbami has improved his keeping, although still struggling with bat in hand his glove work was top notch yesterday .....

Is Neville Madziva better than Tinashe Panyangara ?? Hard to judge after only watching him bowl 6 overs but he has taken 5 wickets with the new ball something Tinashe struggles to do ......

Chamu's bowling is also improving a lot, I remember people on this forum comparing his bowling to park stuff and rightly so his economy was like 7.5, but now for the first time in his career I reckon he has his economy under a run a ball ......

Cremer is getting better with every ball he delivers ......

[tawac]

Waller is just hopeless and contributes nothing to the team. I wonder what the next excuse will be for having him in the side.

[foreignfield]

Mutumbami has improved his keeping, although still struggling with bat in hand his glove work was top notch yesterday .....

I agree with that (and all your other points, jaybro). Yesterday I was trying to remember how PJ kept in BD, and if it was worth for him to take the gloves? My memory is deserting me, which might be good sign: does it mean he was unspectacular but didn't make any big blunders???

One further thing that is standing out is: our fielding seems to have improved. We are not dropping three sitters per game, we are taking tough chances regularly, and of course Raza is, as usual, a demon in the ring. I wonder who's doing the fielding drills? Waller? Twelve months ago, when a ball was skyed, I was hiding behind my chair, nowadays I confidently follow its path into the safe hands of one of our fielders.

[jaybro]

Yeah 100% FF our fielding is a pleasure to watch, the fielding from the 'Golden Years' was one thing that attracted me to Zimbabwe and I'm enjoying watching the boys hunt and back each other in the field ......

[zimlover]

What a fucking joke, once again losing after being in a winning position