[Match Thread] UAE v Zimbabwe (World Cup Pool B)

[foreignfield]

^^ I can feel your pain, skipper, but it's no use pretending we are a cricketing superpower when we are not.

UAE have recently beaten Afghanistan 3-1, and we know how our last home series against them went.

[aydee]

^^ I can feel your pain, skipper, but it's no use pretending we are a cricketing superpower when we are not.

UAE have recently beaten Afghanistan 3-1, and we know how our last home series against them went.

Exactly, a win is a win. I don't think Zim are really a better side than they showed today. That's where it's at. A better team than UAE, but not by miles.

[Conant]

What happened to Panyangara? Last year he was in great touch! Now he's looking like a medium pace trundler - and we've already got Kamungozi filling that role And Utseya waiting in the wings with his slow mediums If only Vitori was picked instead of Utseya - it wasn't some well kept secret that these pitches would favour seam.

It hasn't been said yet but I think Vitori was left out because they are afraid he might be called for for throwing. Certain to I feel. No other reason makes sense

[zimbos_05]

Really nervy win. I guess we will take it, but we really should be doing better. Our bowling and fielding let us down big time. We really need to be smarter and better in the field. We also need to be chirpier. We were far too quiet for my liking from a cricket side. We need to up our game big time.

Fell asleep after about five overs of our innings so have not watched it yet. Have the highlights on record so will watch them soon, but it seems like our batting is looking ok. A a few guys got in the 40s which is good but we really need to be able to have at least one guy pushing on from there and maybe getting a century. That would put us in good stead for totals of 300+

We also really need to work minimising extras. We concede way too many. There is a lot that needs to be worked on in the bowling department. At the moment we just sending the ball down without any plan or ideas. Our bowlers need to be smarter and we need not only to bowl to our field placings, but bowl depending on the how the field is changing.

If Chamu is fit i think i would bring him back for Regis and bring in Mupariwa for Kamungozi.

[maehara]

One possible upside to this: between UAE making a fight of today, and Ireland beating West Indies, the idea of downsizing the World Cup to 10 teams is looking even worse than it already did. Noticed some of the commentators last night (Pommie in particular) coming out against the idea as well.

You want the lower-ranked teams at the tournament, you want the upsets, the possibility of one of the Big 8 being unceremoniously dumped out on their arses. 14 teams is absolutely fine, and one or two more strong showing by the 'minnows' and hopefully even the ICC won't be able to ignore them.

EDIT: Not just me, I see. http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc-cricket ... 34851.html

[aydee]

What happened to Panyangara? Last year he was in great touch! Now he's looking like a medium pace trundler - and we've already got Kamungozi filling that role And Utseya waiting in the wings with his slow mediums If only Vitori was picked instead of Utseya - it wasn't some well kept secret that these pitches would favour seam.

It hasn't been said yet but I think Vitori was left out because they are afraid he might be called for for throwing. Certain to I feel. No other reason makes sense

Perhaps also the reason that many seamers have been outperforming him in domestic cricket this season...

[aydee]

One possible upside to this: between UAE making a fight of today, and Ireland beating West Indies, the idea of downsizing the World Cup to 10 teams is looking even worse than it already did. Noticed some of the commentators last night (Pommie in particular) coming out against the idea as well.

You want the lower-ranked teams at the tournament, you want the upsets, the possibility of one of the Big 8 being unceremoniously dumped out on their arses. 14 teams is absolutely fine, and one or two more strong showing by the 'minnows' and hopefully even the ICC won't be able to ignore them.

EDIT: Not just me, I see. http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc-cricket ... 34851.html

Co-sign.

[Jemisi]

This was not a great win but we won it against a lesser team trying its best. They were doing well against us but we found a proper partnership and iced the match. This is what so often frustratingly happens to us against better teams - we are outplayed for a portion of the game that proves decisive. I think the emotional difficulty watching it is that because of our strength relative to others there is no room in our schedule for us to suffer an upset. We have to win our must wins and then hope. That isn't that different to the torture of supporting a team in the football WC.

Our seam bowling is a worry - we are getting spanked. We are missing Price, Cremer and Utseya whose tight overs covered over our weak seam options. With two retired and one banned we are lacking much control from anywhere. Chatara is doing fine and should have had a four fer against his name today. Kamngozi is doing ok for a guy on small grounds who hardly turns it. Panyangara maybe needs to be rested for Mupariwa. The bits and pieces bowlers are a nice idea but we need more wickets from them. The Windies could feast on us, India may well be capable of 400+ against us. We will likely struggle to restrict the Irish unless the pressure gets to them as favourites.
But there is no one at home, Vitori isn't tearing up the Logan Cup. Shingi has had a rough year and you'd have to play him ahead of Mire to get a fourth bowler in. Tiripano won't outbowl Panyangara, The youngsters haven't had a breakthrough season yet. Madziva would be similar to Mire with less batting ability. Even Jarvis or Ireland wouldn't be radically different except that their inclusion would mean 7 instead of 8 batsmen. I think 3 bowlers is a massive weakness, but the 8 batsmen have scored 277 against SA and our 4th highest chase ever. So having Mire seems to be working on balance vs our other options. It is a compromise but perhaps the best solution given our player base. The real squad issue was bringing Utseya when he seems, barring mystery balls of some description, to be useless. Any one of Vitori, Shingi, Tiripano, Chinouya etc would have been better.

[CrimsonAvenger]

I'll be rooting for UAE against Ireland

[sloandog]

1. Raza: looked solid and seemed set to go on and make a big one. The guy just needs to realise that he can't keep throwing away his wicket like he did. He hits in the air so much but having said that, he had a very average ODI opener with him.

2. Chakabva: Solid test player, nobody will deny that, but that innings yesterday was one of the most painful, cringy, frustrating i've ever had to watch. He literally couldn't get it off the square. He simply can not do that again as he was putting pressure on Taylor and Raza. Sad way to go but t be honest it was a blessing in disguise.

3. Mazakdaza: Lesbian shot.

4. Taylor: Looked really good. His strike rate so far, including the war up matches, has been above 100 so that suggests he is in some kind of form. He looked at ease but god every time he swept my heart sank. Played some lovely shots but the way he got out was awful. He had mid on and mid off back, punch it down the ground like Ervine and William were doing instead of trying to sweep a middle stump half volley. Needs to get into his head that his favourite shot is also his most susseptable, but he's still our best player...so far.

5. Williams: class act. Rotated the strike, hit down the ground, punished the bad ball and saw us home. His bowling was not as good as it usually is, but he's still by far our best spinner and probably on par with Mazakadza and Taylor. More please mate.

6. Mire: bowled ok, not too sure what all the hype is about. Has very little control of where he's bowling it, but jut runs in and hits the deck hard. Poor shot to get out but I reckon he'll come good eventually.

7. Ervine: welcome back. Hit the ball hard and rotated the strike. Very impressive knock and a great catch.

8. Chigumbura: bowling was awful, what's he doing? Batting was good as he saw us home but he needs to sort that bowling out, for his sake ans the teams. His captaincy is shit as well

9. Panyangara: What's happened to him? He's bowling 75mph half trackers at the end, what's wrong with the yorkers? Seriously lacking any potency in the seam attack. Looks unfit, slow in the outfield and unthreatening with the ball. I think bringing in Mupariwa would be even worse against the Windies, but he's been bowling well and taking wickets, which is what we really need.

10. Kamungozi: bowled ok again, but does not look at all threatening. He keeps it tight but we need a Price or even an Utsea who seemed to have gotten into the nack of taking wickets before his ban. Can't bat and looks average in the field. Needs to start taking wickets.

11: Chatara: brilliant, as always.


Overall, disapointent. I was hoping for a crushing win but we fielded awful, bowled awful for the most part and had it not been for Ervine and Williams we would have lost this match easily. Things to discuss and ideas need to be brought to the table.