[Match Thread] OnIy Test: SL vs ZIM

[foreignfield]

Tiripano's defence and shot selection puts some of his middle order colleagues to shame.

[Conant]

Really, really pleased for Craig Ervine! Will stop criticisms of him henceforth; this has been an innings of really great character!

And Donald Tiripano! What a chap. Batting better than many of our top order batsman against the spin. He will die for his team.

Immensely pleasing work then -- the best day of Test cricket we have had in a years, given we were in the doldrums before lunch.

Totally proud, my heart is swelling, well done boys!

[Jemisi]

Well we've won two sessions out of three. Catastrophically lost the first one. Are we back to about level?

[foreignfield]

Well we've won two sessions out of three. Catastrophically lost the first one. Are we back to about level?

From what I've seen in the last hour I'd say that "about level" starts somewhere around 425.

[Conant]

Well we've won two sessions out of three. Catastrophically lost the first one. Are we back to about level?

From what I've seen in the last hour I'd say that "about level" starts somewhere around 425.

Killjoy!

[TapsC]

Not a bad day. We lost the first session badly but the last 2 have been good. We should be in a better place but there have been a few soft dismissals. It's all good now with Donald batting well but I'm really concerned about the bowling. Where are those 10 wickets going to come from? The strategy must have been to score plenty with the extra batsman but I just feel anything under 450 (or another way of looking at it is 4.5/5 sessions) might be below par in terms of our game plan. Got a feeling Sri Lanka are going to go past 500 so we needed a situation where they only get about 70/80 runs ahead at most so that we can set a target of about 220/230 on the final day which would be extremely difficult to chase. So Craig and Donald have to bat another session at least

[foreignfield]

Well we've won two sessions out of three. Catastrophically lost the first one. Are we back to about level?

From what I've seen in the last hour I'd say that "about level" starts somewhere around 425.

Killjoy!

I didn't say Craig's double and the Don's maiden ton won't see us sailing past that number tomorrow

[ZIMDOGGY]

Not level yet jemisi, at least 100 behind at this stage or three wickets less. Our bowling ain't great.
I always was confident of hitting 150 even after Waller was out due to our cremer and Donald tail. Now I feel 400 isn't out of the question should they survive the first twenty minutes.
Craig will want 200 and Don will want fifty then support Craig.
New day can change things though so this could be over in three balls tomorrow.
The thing though is only Craig and Donald have stood up with the bat in their respective positions. With 8 and three quarter batsman there really was no excuse to get a minimum of 400. We only needed two batsman to catch fire and we only got one, and they all had starts !!

Imagine if someone like moor contributed 80. Match on.

A draw is not outside the realm of possibility. Because Sri Lanka won't declare for less than 450 no matter what

[ZIMDOGGY]

The focus should be getting Craig to his 200.

Not only will that be amazing, it would also mean that the team posts near 450 on that alone and another session is soaked up

[pariah]

Excellent batting from Craig Ervine. Absolutely brilliant. Unbelievable. He did ok against Sri Lanka in Zimbabwe, but was always going to be vulnerable away in the subcontinent. He’ll be very upset this is a one Test Series because he would have been backing himself to collect another one or two tons after this performance.

The trio of Raza, Williams and Malcolm live up to my theory – score 30 odd runs, all that’s left if for them to concede 130 runs each! If Joe Root, Moeen Ali and Dean Elgar can bat in the top 3 then bowl 15 plus overs, I don’t see why one of those three shouldn’t - bowling is not an excuse. Rather unfair on Musakanda. Regis Chakabva deserves what’s been done to him. He knows he’s a far better batsmen and keeper than Moor and has proved it repeatedly. HE should have refused selection if he was going to be opening the batting. Both him and Musakanda have been Timecyn Marumad! http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/623576.html

Say what you want about Tiripano, but that boy has got talent with the bat. He really should work more on his batting and be a genuine number 8, and designated nightwatchman

Can Zimbabwe make it to 400 runs? I still think Sri Lanka can win this inside 4 days, or even 3.5 days.