[Match Thread] UAE v Zimbabwe (World Cup Pool B)

[eugene]

VICTORY. Great to see Ervine and particularly Williams guide us home. Williams is the steadying force in the middle order we sorely missed in Bangladesh. Without him this game could/would have ended in defeat.

[jaybro]

Really average performance by the team but luckily the class of Williams and returned form of Ervine gets them home ....

Still plenty of questions over the team .....

If Chibhabha is still injured do they stick with Regis or does Matsi get a return ??

Do they stick with 8 batsman and only 3 front line bowlers ???

Who bowls at the death against the powerful Windies lower order ???

[brmtaylor.com admin]

It's a win and we'll take the points, but gee... I think there's more to be taken out of the SA loss than today's game. Very disappointing we let them score so much. Batting was just okay...

[Googly]

That was way too close for comfort. I thought we were going to lose that until that last over. That bowler must have bet his house on Zim winning because he served up 3 four balls.

[eugene]

Win is a win, all that matters in a tournament. Pak v WI is a key match for us. The loser of that game becomes our prime target I think.

[Googly]

Our bowlers had better improve their block hole bowling urgently before the next game. There was not much enthusiasm when we got a UAE wicket? Very muted celebrations, as if it were a given that we were going to win this.
Interesting listening to Williams telling us that Dav had told him to put the sweep away, I wonder if Taylor was absent from that lesson? He sweeps very well but way too much.

[foreignfield]

Gee, I was pretty nervous when I turned on my computer this morning ... glad we made it over the line. Watching the highlights just now. Very poor fielding on show, Taylor was awful. But two sharp catches by Ervine and Williams.

Pleased for Larry even if he's too often over the line when he takes a wicket. As I, and many of you guys, said previously this was the one fixture that was crying out for pace (as did the whole tournament I guess instead of the "fetch it" variety of Kamungozi and Utseya), but we only have the squad that we have. Panyangara was terrible, was is he doing bowling 115 kph half trackers for, and those were not even slower balls.

Thank god for Sean Williams.

[foreignfield]

Am I the only one who is confused how the eligibility rules/residency period works: How can can someone make their official ODI debut for the UAE last year (Oct. 2014) when he's played FC cricket in his native country less than 3 1/2 years earlier (May 2011) -- I thought it was four years?

Born in the UAE it seems. That might have helped.

Colombo !?!

[Jemisi]

Well, we got there. I will be cheering us on at Canberra, so we had better step it up and win a big game.

[brmtaylor.com admin]

- We should have restricted them to 160 - I don't care how small the ground is or how good the wicket is for batting. UAE should never have been allowed to score as many runs as they did.
- We should have won this game with 25 overs to spare - this was supposed to be our NRR booster to give us a chance of competing with Ireland. The moment they scored 200+ that was never going to happen.

This sums it up:

POSTED BY BRIAN MURPHY ON | FEBRUARY 19, 2015, 6:05 GMT
Pleased that we won but sad that it has come to us being pleased at a win over a team that we should be by all rights walking over

I see nothing positive to come out of this match. Some may say it was good to see Chatara and Williams perform well, but I'd say this: Chatara should be doing well against teams of the calibre of UAE, geez... and as for Williams? Well all that says to me is that Raza/Chakabva/Masakadza/Taylor didn't do well.

What happened to Panyangara? Last year he was in great touch! Now he's looking like a medium pace trundler - and we've already got Kamungozi filling that role And Utseya waiting in the wings with his slow mediums If only Vitori was picked instead of Utseya - it wasn't some well kept secret that these pitches would favour seam.

Very disappointed about what I saw today. This game was never meant to be a contest. This was supposed to be the one match we'd go into knowing it's a stats-booster. At least we escaped with the points and avoid the ignominy of the scorecard saying we dropped this match, now we can move on and never speak of this awful performance ever again