For crying out loud - DROP KYLE JARVIS!

[brmtaylor.com admin]

Quite a disappointing match, but at least Brian Vitori showed his true class today. Performances like this reaffirm his star qualities. His legendary swing was bamboozling the batsmen; he was virtually unplayable.

I thought Jarvis bowled better than his figures suggested. Very unfortunate to have four french cuts miss the stumps and go for 4 plus two missed chances at first slip in the first over which also went for 4. As usual he was bowling a brilliant line and getting a bit of away movement. He has all the makings of a top shelf limited overs bowler for Zimbabwe, he has a very bright future.

Taylor was very solid in defence, terribly unlucky to be given out LBW. If the inside edge was any thicker it would have been a legitimate on-drive. Coming off an impressive series in the SLPL he looks to be in the form of his life.

Should be a good tournament, I look forward to Zimbabwe repeating their efforts from the tri-series against South Africa!

[eugene]

Welcome back, hhm.

[sloandog]

It doesn't half annoy me when people on cricinfo write how ireland are way better than zimbabwe, just really annoys me ugh! Welcome back Hhm we've missed you....

[takleg]

Taylor was very solid in defence, terribly unlucky to be given out LBW. If the inside edge was any thicker it would have been a legitimate on-drive. Coming off an impressive series in the SLPL he looks to be in the form of his life.

Are you for real??

[eugene]

It doesn't half annoy me when people on cricinfo write how ireland are way better than zimbabwe, just really annoys me ugh! Welcome back Hhm we've missed you....

But Ireland are better.

[Jemisi]

I think the Ireland / Zim strength debate is undecided. We need a good home and away series to see where both teams are up to against each other.

[Kopje]

I think the Ireland / Zim strength debate is undecided. We need a good home and away series to see where both teams are up to against each other.

about the away fixture, will they let us fly into Dublin or elsewhere?

[hhm]

Coming off an impressive series in the SLPL [Taylor] looks to be in the form of his life.

Are you for real??

Parapraxis?

I think the Ireland / Zim strength debate is undecided.

Where cricket is concerned
1. can Ireland beat Zim - YES
2. does Ire have greater depth - NO
3. does Ire have a better system than Zim - NO
4. does Ireland have a better cricket future - NO
5. is Ireland superior to Zim - NO; is it equal - NO; is it inferior - YES

can we return Chigs to his swines

Short memory - remember Aus once, or twice; and the Sri Lankans not too long ago; not to mention the Pro50 Final. We continue to fool ourselves but he's the first name on the list. Think about it, despite what we all thought, loss of captaincy didn't make him vulnerable one bit!

let Matsi go gentle into that goodnight

Zim in a global show-piece, opening match, millions of viewers - we'll be wanting to win but display class & maturity at the same time. Now if there are two batsmen in our ranks who can remotely express the grace combined with destruction (ala Amla, KP, Bell etc) one of them is Vusi, and the other is Matsi(Taylor looks wrong but productive, Hami an impressive bully; Craig dumb&one-sided; Waller - useless). I'll be cheering Matsi on.

[maehara]

1. can Ireland beat Zim - YES

No argument here.

2. does Ire have greater depth - NO

Arguably they do. They need to account for England poaching their best players, after all, and play a significant number of their international matches without their county players - and that weakened side routinely wins the Intercontinental Cup.

3. does Ire have a better system than Zim - NO

The only area where Ireland's lacking is a First Class system, and that's coming. Their board is solvent (and receives a lot less money from the ICC than ZC does), not reliant on the good graces of a 3rd party to organise their (vibrant and competitive) domestic competitions (hi there, Dominus), is not in constant dispute with half its players, and has an administrations that's generally respected and credited with doing a damn good job. Zimbabwe has none of that. Sorry, but Ireland's "system" is significantly better.

4. does Ireland have a better cricket future - NO

Ireland are very much in the ascendancy at the moment. Zimbabwe are not - we're at best treading water. The Bangladesh Test, for my money, seems to have been very much a false dawn, and there's a lot more work to be done.

5. is Ireland superior to Zim - NO; is it equal - NO; is it inferior - YES

It's not possible to say, because the two sides don't play each other often enough. But for as much as I'm a Zimbabwe fan before I'm an Ireland one (there's no irelandcricketforums.com, after all), over a one-day or T20 series with both sides at full strength, I think Ireland would beat us. 4-day games, we would win.

[eugene]

Zimbabwe cricket doesn't have much of a future, surely Ireland must have a better future?