Zimbabwe vs Afghanistan (1st ODI)

[TapsC]

just curious at how Jongwe out of all people got 5/6 against these guys..I wish there was some kind of highlights package for that.

Assuming Hami and Williams don't play first up

Raza
Mire
Musakanda
Ervine
Raza
M Waller
Burl
PJ
Cremer
Tiripano
Mumba
Chatara

The first game is going to set the pace.if we want to win the series we have to hit the ground running. I believe we can win. the key which was mentioned earlier is early wickets

[zimbofan88]

Where is our forumite "PJMoor the Oracle"? We need his magic words here before the match.

[The Robot]

Mr. Ntini will hang himself in this tomato tree after the sereis

[gargamel]

I am feeling quite sad that we are at home and should have better structures and should be favourites but the feeling in my gut suggests we have a fight on our hands to stop the rolling tide of Afghans. What stung me the most this morning was the fact that no Zimbabwean player has made the IPL short list and 4 or 5 Afghan players have made the list. Are we that bad ??? or we just dont play enough cricket.
http://www.espncricinfo.com/indian-prem ... 82273.html
http://www.cricbuzz.com/cricket-news/92 ... -for-grabs

[Kriterion_BD]

^none of the Zim players have made a consistent enough impression. Hami and Waller did well in the BPL a couple seasons ago, but to get IPL recognition, you need solid international and particularly limited overs successes. Only 2 bangladeshis play in their IPL, Shakib and Mustafiz. Tamim, Mahmudullah, Rahim, Sabbir, Taskin...all are wither world class or have the potential to be, yet none are good enough for the IPL.

[tawac]

Our Batting looks very, very weak. Unless the new boys can really turn up we in for a ass whooping, major ass whooping. Perhaps Burl Masukanda can turn on the xfactor and we gonna need Ervine, Cremer, Raza to be on top of their game.

[TapsC]

well we can't blame the IPL if Afghanistan knocked us out the t20 world cup. aren't there foreign quotas as well? I actually think we are slowly building a decent t20 team.. Hami Elton Waller Mire PJ Raza and Burl are very capable big hitters. cremer and chisoro decent t20 bowlers. madziva and tiripano have fared well under pressure too. that's a team already. what we need is consistency as a team and eventually the guys will get a gig

[CrimsonAvenger]

Based on their performances in the format so far in their careers, the only Zimbos who could have been in contention were Hamilton and Waller. Even they failed to catch the eye on the two most important occasions when the IPL scouts would have been active - the last T20 world cup and the last India tour. That put paid to their chances of IPL gigs. Others are nowhere near even getting shortlisted for BPL / PSL selections.

The proven and deserving Bangladeshis are already there in IPL, and even though 5 Afghans are listed, I think the only wise investment would be Mohammed Nabi. In fact, that would be a great investment.

P.S.: I hate IPL to the core and don't care what happens there, but yeah, would love to see some Zimbos making money there if the chance arises. We've only had Taibu and Price there so far.

[Flakeman]

If PJ opens the batting, we are essentially 0/1 .. would be madness to put as opening. Zadran gets good movement and in the mid 140s too.

We need friendly faced Chatara to get rid of Fat Boy in the first over today ! What do we think we should do if Cremer calls correctly ? My gut always tells me to bowl at HSC.

[foreignfield]

Morning everyone,

I had a weird dream last night:

We were playing a Test match against Pakistan, Malcolm Waller comes to the crease, the tall Pakistani fast bowler starts his run-up and then suddenly bowls the ball about ten meters out from the crease. It's a sort of loopy leg-break which goes through where third or fourth slip would have been, and Malcolm almost runs himself out. The next ball is bowled similarly but it's even worse and ends up somewhere in the covers, the third ball trickles down leg to the boundary, a cheesy sub-continental ad comes on (involving a nondescript spin bowler come snake conjurer -- and a deodorant), then the fourth ball Malcolm almost manages to edge, but the ball evades him and the keeper for more byes. The commentators start to shout about "the worst over in history" and I'm frantically trying to post the words "Pakistan! Match fixing" while the stream freezes and the last thing I remember is that the over went for 57 runs.

If Waller somehow swats his way to 57 runs later today, I'll go crazy