2nd Test | Zimbabwe V/s Pakistan | Harare

[jaybro]

Test match starts tomorrow and no word out of Zimbabwe on the status of the injured batsman, I'd assume Prince is out and the guys who weren't part of the original squad such as Wes, Burl & Ervine are still out. With such little information coming out about Williams I'd assume he's a chance, although knowing Zim's luck who is probably out too.

This all means we're likely to see Takudzwanashe Kaitano will likely debut and open the innings, it's going to be a tough ask for the 27 year old from Kadoma who only averages 25 in Logan Cup cricket, this is a big step up.

I think Wellington will get picked ahead of Chisoro, not because he deserves to but because of his brother. Nyauchi also a chance to replace Ngarava who was a bit expensive at times in the first test.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/pak ... cket-score

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Saw Tanaka Chivanga talking with coach Rajput. Is he making debut in 2nd test ? Guy is tall and muscular build, from his physique it looks he can bowl with some raw pace. His domestic stats are also quite good, hope some spice is added in Zim pace group.

Harare pitch curator should leave some grass to provide home team added advantage. Last 5 years havent seen any team outside asia offering spin pitches to visiting asian side except Zimbabwe wheather it be the Queens or Harare. This Zimbabwe bowling has venom in seam friendly tracks but the Harare pitch is making them look venomless.This Pakistan side is beatable if pitch offers pace & bounce.ZC should atleast provide home team some advantage.

[jaybro]

Harare pitch curator should leave some grass to provide home team added advantage. Last 5 years havent seen any team outside asia offering spin pitches to visiting asian side except Zimbabwe wheather it be the Queens or Harare. This Zimbabwe bowling has venom in seam friendly tracks but the Harare pitch is making them look venomless.This Pakistan side is beatable if pitch offers pace & bounce.ZC should atleast provide home team some advantage.

The problem is the batters couldn't handle Hasan Ali & Shaheen on that deck, they'd be screwed on a more spicy wicket.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Harare pitch curator should leave some grass to provide home team added advantage. Last 5 years havent seen any team outside asia offering spin pitches to visiting asian side except Zimbabwe wheather it be the Queens or Harare. This Zimbabwe bowling has venom in seam friendly tracks but the Harare pitch is making them look venomless.This Pakistan side is beatable if pitch offers pace & bounce.ZC should atleast provide home team some advantage.

The problem is the batters couldn't handle Hasan Ali & Shaheen on that deck, they'd be screwed on a more spicy wicket.

But only a spicy wicket can help Zimbabwe to make impact in this series and future specially against the asians. Zimbabwe batters has more experience then Pakistan in playing seam & swing friendly pitches, all that they need is spending time and judge the condition. ZC should take the risk, this Pak batting line up what we saw in Eng, NZ & Aus, can be ripped apart with pace & swing, we all saw how Blessing & Nayuchi looks when they get spicy wickets, both rattled Afghans in UAE tracks, with their height and quick action makes the batter hard to judge the swing . Comming to Hasan & Saheen factor, they rely more on cutters and slowers then swing. What Saheen has got is he brings the new ball into the right handers, which can be neutralized by batting with an open stance else Afridi has no impact with that old ball. Hasan relies on cutters and change in pace deliveries, a classy and tricky old bowl bowler with accurate bouncer, tailor made for slow & double paced wicket.. He is troubling more with indippers, playing forward with straight bat can help Zim batters to neutralize Hasan.

If Pak bowlers, bowl out Zimbabwe for 100-150 in green seam friendly pitch, this Zim bowlers has the ability to bowl out Pak for 150-160 in such spicy wicket, else its going to be a one sided affair.

[TapsC2]

A flat pitch will see us batted out the game again. I would rather we go out with a bang on a pitch with some grass. It will look much better than what happened last week

[Donald]

I would like to think Williams will be back tomorrow.
Be nice if ervine made a return too. The batting does look very light

[jaybro]

But only a spicy wicket can help Zimbabwe to make impact in this series and future specially against the asians. Zimbabwe batters has more experience then Pakistan in playing seam & swing friendly pitches, all that they need is spending time and judge the condition. ZC should take the risk, this Pak batting line up what we saw in Eng, NZ & Aus, can be ripped apart with pace & swing, we all saw how Blessing & Nayuchi looks when they get spicy wickets, both rattled Afghans in UAE tracks, with their height and quick action makes the batter hard to judge the swing . Comming to Hasan & Saheen factor, they rely more on cutters and slowers then swing. What Saheen has got is he brings the new ball into the right handers, which can be neutralized by batting with an open stance else Afridi has no impact with that old ball. Hasan relies on cutters and change in pace deliveries, a classy and tricky old bowl bowler with accurate bouncer, tailor made for slow & double paced wicket.. He is troubling more with indippers, playing forward with straight bat can help Zim batters to neutralize Hasan.

If Pak bowlers, bowl out Zimbabwe for 100-150 in green seam friendly pitch, this Zim bowlers has the ability to bowl out Pak for 150-160 in such spicy wicket, else its going to be a one sided affair.

I understand your point that Zimbabwe has a better chance on a bowler friendly deck, this is proven to be correct as their last three test wins have come on lower scoring matches. But saying Zim batsman have more experience playing on such decks is wrong. When you consider Zimbabwe have played just 2 SENA Tests away from home since their re-entering into Test cricket, compared to Pakistan who often tour those countries it throws your argument out the window.

[CrimsonAvenger]

What we need is the typical Harare wicket. That is unique in itself and has become a tough nut to crack for India, Pakistan and Bangladesh before. Zimbos, even with not so great batting records have played on such wickets day in and day out and might adapt quicker than the touring team. Our bowlers also would know where to pitch and so on to get the best out of it, while the oopsition bowlers would take some time to get used to. This is precisely how we managed to beat Pak in 2013. There is some sense in this argument. But don't see this happening unfortunately - neither with the wicket, not with the extremely weak batting we have for this series.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Was going through this chart and found that in HSC 530 wickets has gone to the pacers and 159 to the spinners. Clearly, pacers have got an edge nearly 3 times over spinners, and it can be seen that HSC was a mouth watering pitch back in 90s for pacers and curators also provided Zimbabwe the advantage that were exploited by Streaks, Strangs, Olongas against the touring asian sides.

HSC has got all the materials of a spicy pitch its all depend on curator & ZC to bring back life for pacers in it and give Zim some advantage.

[jaybro]

I’m sorry but that’s rubbish, just because pacers took wickets there doesn’t mean the wicket was ‘spicy’ HSC has never been spicy.

The traditional HSC wicket has always given assistance to seamers when there’s a little bit of moisture in the wicket before flattening out to be a good deck for batting and finally deteriorating in the final day to bring the spinner into the match.

There is one pitch that has some pace & bounce, it’s one of the end pitches of the square I believe and was used in the CWCQ v the Windies. According to Liam Brickill it rarely gets used in international matches, I remember talking about it during that match in 2018.