I wont be congratulating anybody. If I were the Cremer, I would take the opportunity today to speak out against all the glaring, dodgy umpiring decisions we have had over the years.
What's the worst that could happen - a match fee fine? The Board will surely pay for it.
Somebody has to speak out.
First of all, why did Malcolm Waller bowl just 5 overs in a match in which Cremer, Raza and Williams almost bowled 200 overs?
Its a point to ponder. Perhaps indeed somebody had a friendly nudge at Streak and co. Perhaps we could have done a few things better ourselves.
That doesn't mean umpires must stump us the way they do. That decision alone is enough to crush a team's entire spirit because it is so glaring and unashamedly biased.
Last edited by Conant on Tue Jul 18, 2017 9:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
The honest truth is that they gave everything . Unfortunately in test cricket you can't lose a whole day worth of cricket.. we were good for 4 but with test cricket you have to be good all the time and that's why it's so difficult.. the 3rd umpire was clearly the deciding factor for me in terms of a momentum shift. The run rates were also way too high this test. They just had too much time.
In the end with test cricket you need specialists. Starting with the keeper. chakabva created opportunities, something PJ would have never done and we all know this. Taylor won't do a better job either so we have to stick with him. There is nobody else.. you can keep dreaming about Murray but he chose a different path for now.
As for the extra batsman we have to say they recovered well and it really helped but Waller and PJ should have scored more here. They were in. We had the opportunity to bat them out the game and we missed out.. had we batted an hour into the final session yesterday they would have never had a chance but people gave their wickets away.
As for the bowling. We need strike bowlers if we are going to play 3.. if only they had played M'shangwe.. it was a tough decision to make but in the end they didn't have the courage..Williams did as best as he could. This attack badly needs Chatara Vitori and Chisoro as part of its squad. Bobby and Donald are not wicket takers. I love Donald's gutsy contributions but in all honesty that's not what he is in the team for.. Chisoro getting 2 big wickets up the order might be more valuable than that 40 odd he got. We need to revisit this strategy of bit part players in tests because this will never work against the great sides
Overall I am proud..they played to the best of their ability and asked Sri Lanka to set a record here.. that's fair enough.. the boys played their hearts out
Last edited by TapsC on Tue Jul 18, 2017 10:22 am, edited 1 time in total.
Sean Williams scored 44 runs batting at number 5, then conceded 208 runs for 4 wickets, only one of which was a bowler's wicket which was a freakish delivery or a fluke!
Sean Williams single-handedly contributed 30% of Sri Lanka's runs in this match. How on earth he was allowed to bowl 67 overs I seriously do not know. If he was Keith Dabengwa I would seriously argue that Cremer and Streak were trying to get him dropped, and he would've been dropped. Good thing is Williams is immune to all of that!
Lastly Malcolm Waller bowled a grand total of 5 overs. Surely all those thinking Zimbabwe was robbed must pause for a moment and consider that maybe Zimbabwe were tipped-off for Malcolm's bowling and now he;s safe from being dropped for illegal bowling again, so can work on his batting and stay in the team.
And your point is.... The team played the best they could. Its a shame they came short. Its a performance that we can certainly build on. A couple of good seamers and better keeper we are good. Most of Cremer's captaining decisions seemed to be coming from the top, I guess they read it all wrong or maybe it just didn't come off. Sean was bound to go for plenty. Most bowlers tend to do that if bowled for as many overs as he did. Waller is only a part timer would have expected him to bowl a lot either way.
Last edited by tawac on Tue Jul 18, 2017 10:08 am, edited 1 time in total.
CHRISTOPHER MPOFU: 'The problem was fear of failure. I used to think that when I played, if I didn't do well in one game, I would lose my place for the next one but now I've let go of that'
Really gutted. Good Test match for the neutrals (and SL) but not for us. The blokes played well but We need to win matches, not push opposition to day 5. People start taking you serious when you whip them (especially at home) - we've been in similar positions before where we were in a good position but couldn't close out the match (think NZ, Balawayo 2011)
In retrospect, we were a bowler short and dropped catches, don't help either. Cremer bowled his heart out but the scoreboard kept ticking, needed to tie down an end.
Looking forward to Windies tour, we should build on the positivity in the squad and win that series.
Last edited by clikcspeed on Tue Jul 18, 2017 10:05 am, edited 1 time in total.
I wont be congratulating anybody. If I were the Cremer, I would take the opportunity today to speak out against all the glaring, dodgy umpiring decisions we have had over the years.
What's the worst that could happen - a match fee fine? The Board will surely pay for it.
Somebody has to speak out.
First of all, why did Malcolm Waller bowl just 5 overs in a match in which Cremer, Raza and Williams almost bowled 200 overs?
Its a point to ponder. Perhaps indeed somebody had a friendly nudge at Streak and co.
That's the biggest scandal of this match. How can Malcolm be su effective in the ODIs but bowl just 5 overs in this macth, then people think it's normal an dbe dismissive about it?
The run rates were also way too high this test. They just had too much time.
In the end with test cricket you need specialists.
As for the extra batsman we have to say they recovered well and it really helped but Waller and PJ should have scored more here. They were in.
As for the bowling. We need strike bowlers if we are going to play 3.. if only they had played M'shangwe
I love Donald's gutsy contributions but in all honesty that's not what he is in the team for.. Chisoro getting 2 big wickets up the order might be more valuable than that 40 odd he got. We need to revisit this strategy of bit bart players in tests because this will never work against the great sides
Overall I am proud..they played to the best of their ability and asked Sri Lanka to set a record here.. that's fair enough.. the boys played their hearts out
Excellent. I agree with everything here.
This wasn't a memorable Test macth for me. Craig's 160 aside, nothing else positive about Zimbabwe except to a little extent Raza's century and Cremer's very flawed bowling. Sri lanka will be extremely disappointed in their performance. A lot will be talked about at SLC ahead of India's visit.
I know some here disagree but wait till you read Cricinfo's own articles about Sri Lanka ahead of India tour. They'll vindincate this viewpoint. SL well below par.
