Where to from here?

[AussieZimFan]

Need to encourage a few more county players, particularly batsmen to return if they can't get another contract like Eddie Bryom. There's going to be a vacuum of experience leaving whilst developing the young batsmen coming through. I don't know the chances of getting a few others like Higgins, Snater or Cartwright or even Ryan Murray, but probably not good

[sloandog]

Snater is an interesting one, although I don't think he'll readily give up his County contract.

Ryan Murray probably hasn't even picked up a bat for 4 years

[Googly]

I've sadly spent some time on various platforms seeing what's out there. I'm disgusted and ashamed about what my fellow Zimbabweans are saying. No wonder this country is such a mess.

[sloandog]

I've sadly spent some time on various platforms seeing what's out there. I'm disgusted and ashamed about what my fellow Zimbabweans are saying. No wonder this country is such a mess.

What's being said

[zimbos_05]

To answer the question, for me:

1) Hire a new batting coach. Matsi is shit house and none of our batters are improving under him.
2) Develop a better development structure. Right now our structure is that if someone shows an ounce of talent, they get thrust into the first team and asked to figure things our themselves. Our coaching really needs to be better.
3) Do away with the passengers. I'm sorry jaybro, but on reflection of this match, Chatara has cost us dearly.
4) Hire a sports psychologist. One of our issues is our mental state. Our players either cower or are too expressive, they don't have an in between. They don't know how to deal with situations on the field and this shows too in the decisions of the captain.
5) Be serious about grassroots development. This nonsense of Hammy and co playing in club competitions does nothing for the development of juniors. Our domestic competition is currently a bit part village knock around. We need to view it as an International A competition and that should be the level it aims for.

[Pat_Bee]

Point 4 is pitched on a sixpence lol.

At this level skill gets you so far and the rest is mental. Don’t really know enough about bowling to comment on that side of the game. The chase though; it wasn’t even 5 an over required, it could have been won in singles but the boys (or some of them) didn’t see it like that. Granted Sole was probably something half our boys have never faced, but you can coach/train for that, even so 235 should have been reachable with overs to spare.

[jaybro]

3) Do away with the passengers. I'm sorry jaybro, but on reflection of this match, Chatara has cost us dearly.

So typical of this forum to try and scapegoat one person. There’s no way you can blame this loss on Chatara.

Zimbabwe’s last 5 overs cost them 50 odd runs, Chatara bowled one of those overs which went for 14 & got a wicket. Joylord messed up a stumping on the 2nd ball.

His first 5 overs were really good, got the first wicket and should have had McMullen out only for Gumbie to spill a chance he should have taken. That ball went for 4 as did another later that over.

Probably shouldn’t have bowled 6 straight, his last of the spell went for a couple of boundaries but if Gumbie had taken the catch it’s a different story.

Sure his drop was atrocious no doubt, his batting offers nothing, but he ain’t in the side for his batting.

Is he passed his best, yes for sure and Zimbabwe need to try and find a third seamer to replace him. But this idea that A) Evans is a better bowler is just wrong, Evans goes for plenty and takes less than a wicket per game.

I like Brad but it’s just facts he’s not consistently shown he’s a reliable bowler at this level yet. Nyauchi is good with the new ball, but if there’s no assistance on offer, he’s cannon fodder for any batsman.

Chivanga has pace, but he’s all over the place and I’m not sure how well he’d go on these decks. There’s no one else really around putting their hands up yet, so this is an issue for Zimbabwe.

What cost Zimbabwe dearly in the last two matches was their batting, you cannot escape the fact that they shit the bed. Sure Scotland bowled well, but part of the game is being able to survive that. Less said about Raza’s last two dismissals the better, but that’s how he plays.

I was being facetious saying Chatara is a Zimbabwean legend, but he’s certainly in the discussion for the best Zim ODI seamer after Streak. It just doesn’t sit well with me the disrespect shown to him by the forum for a guy who’s been so good for so long being spoken about like he’s Tarisau Muzarabani or someone if the like.

[zimbos_05]

So typical of this forum to try and scapegoat one person. There’s no way you can blame this loss on Chatara.

Zimbabwe’s last 5 overs cost them 50 odd runs, Chatara bowled one of those overs which went for 14 & got a wicket. Joylord messed up a stumping on the 2nd ball.

His first 5 overs were really good, got the first wicket and should have had McMullen out only for Gumbie to spill a chance he should have taken. That ball went for 4 as did another later that over.

Probably shouldn’t have bowled 6 straight, his last of the spell went for a couple of boundaries but if Gumbie had taken the catch it’s a different story.

Sure his drop was atrocious no doubt, his batting offers nothing, but he ain’t in the side for his batting.

Is he passed his best, yes for sure and Zimbabwe need to try and find a third seamer to replace him. But this idea that A) Evans is a better bowler is just wrong, Evans goes for plenty and takes less than a wicket per game.

I like Brad but it’s just facts he’s not consistently shown he’s a reliable bowler at this level yet. Nyauchi is good with the new ball, but if there’s no assistance on offer, he’s cannon fodder for any batsman.

Chivanga has pace, but he’s all over the place and I’m not sure how well he’d go on these decks. There’s no one else really around putting their hands up yet, so this is an issue for Zimbabwe.

What cost Zimbabwe dearly in the last two matches was their batting, you cannot escape the fact that they shit the bed. Sure Scotland bowled well, but part of the game is being able to survive that. Less said about Raza’s last two dismissals the better, but that’s how he plays.

I was being facetious saying Chatara is a Zimbabwean legend, but he’s certainly in the discussion for the best Zim ODI seamer after Streak. It just doesn’t sit well with me the disrespect shown to him by the forum for a guy who’s been so good for so long being spoken about like he’s Tarisau Muzarabani or someone if the like.

I want to be clear, I am not scapegoating one person. I said in the other thread that our batting let us down and was horrific. I've been very consistent over the years in my criticism of our batting and the call for a new batting coach. I think the forum would be able to back me up here. I also said passengers (plural) so am not singling out Chatara only for the loss or blaming one man. I merely mentioned him due to your lauding of him and so it seemed like a fair reason. It was done in a fun joking manner, not picking on you.

It's also unfair on Evans. He defended 11 against Pakistan in the T20. He often also barely gets a decent enough run. If he got the chances in the same way Wessly has, he probably would be doing a lot better. How can one develop consistency when they are so inconsistently selected. In saying that, I have never once said Evans is the answer and solution to our bowling woes. However, I feel that Evans offers us more than Chatara. A lot of teams bat to 9 and sometimes 10, we bat to 7. Chatara has also shown his liability in the field, something that Evans is far better than him at.

When Chatara dropped the sitter, Scotland were 32/0. Mcbride was on 15. He added another 13 to his score. Not a huge amount, but in the context of this game, a very valuable amount. The 14 he conceded in the last 5 overs accounts for a third of the runs conceded in that period. Again, in the context of a low scoring game, very valuable. It could be argued that those extra 27 odd runs were very costly.

I also did some number crunching on this series looking at our 3 pace bowlers. I've excluded the USA game as two of our bowlers were rested.

Chatara: 40.4 - 9 - 281 Economy: 6.9 Avg: 27.1 SR: 27.1
Ngarava: 49 - 12 - 245 Economy: 5 Avg: 20.41 SR: 24.5
Blessing: 53 - 6 - 280 Economy: 5.2 Avg: 46.6 SR: 53

Evans was given 4 overs all tournament and went for 7. The same economy as Chatara. Evans was also defended an undefendable total and playing against the best side in the comp. Even Chatara would have struggled in that match. It was very much a lose-lose situation for Evans and unfair to be harsh on him for his return in that game.

It's clear from those stats that Chatara was our most expensive bowler all tournament and by some mile too. Blessings figures are skewed by the fact he bowled 13 more over and took 3 less wickets, but despite bowling more, he remains more economical. In a game like yesterday where runs are hard to come by and all our other bowlers had an econ of under 5 or 5.4 in Blessings case, Chatara went for 6.5. One of his wickets was also a rank full toss asking to be hit.

I don't think he is in the conversation for the 2nd best bowler, but that's just my personal view.

[jaybro]

You are 100% scapegoating Chatara, your exact words "He cost us dearly"

In what way did he cost the team dearly?

As I pointed out, he was let down by Gumbie dropping McMullen and also when Gumbie failed to take a fairly simple collection off a throw to run Leask out.

I've been on-board with Chats dropping off performance wise, I even suggested that Evans should have played this game instead. I only have issues with the idea that Chatara was the main reason we lost and that Evans is this sensational bowler being held back by not getting opportunities.

I also don't know how Chatara isn't in the conversation as the second best seamer after Streak? He has the second most wickets and his numbers are either slightly better or worse than the likes of Brandes, Olonga, Hondo etc

[tgk]

This team has a serious issue with maintaining momentum. T20 World Cup, we beat Pakistan and then proceeded to bottle two winnable games against Netherlands and Bangladesh. We actually would've been top 2 if we won those lmao. And now this tournament too. :/