[Match Thread] Day Night Pink Ball Test: SA vs Zimbabwe

[The Robot]

Chamu Chibhabha, again proved he is below average at international stage, neither he has got any venom in his bowling, nor his batting looks enough to replace a player like Williams.
A player with more then 100 odis, still can't bat sensibly.

Taylor has been struggling with 3 tests in a row now,needs to spend some time at the crease, as return from county to internationals isn't easy.

Jarvis has cut down his pace for swing. Its common in county cricket, overseas players gets favourable condition of seaming the bowl and cut his pace, which is essential at international cricket.

Ryan Burl is looking good, he is bringing all his experience with ZRS in seaming condition of UK.

[CrimsonAvenger]

Damn...never wanted my prediction to come true...

Burl looking good though...let's hope we can get to 200..my next prediction

You better get this one right too.

[Boundary]

Wow what a spectacle. I thought we competed well, in the afternoon we were bound to be punished for any loose balls but we largely gave up a healthy run rate. I hope as time goes, even though we lose we will stop putting these teams on a pedestal and start competing regularly.

But I'm with Michael Holding, the difference between day and night conditions is farcical for a Test match. At night even we can begin to pose questions to anyone's batting but SA become virtually unplayable. If we are going to keep playing these D/N Tests, I think we might need to select a player whose sole purpose is to survive those conditions - regardless of where in the line up he is, or whatever his batting average is, when the time comes you just put him out there.

[brmtaylor.com admin]

Don't be fooled by the collapse under lights - it was 80% because we are a very average batting unit up against a world class bowling attack. 20% of was the seaming conditions under lights.

I think if that had been at 4pm in the afternoon instead of 8pm at night we're still looking at 3/40 or thereabouts.

Masakadza, Taylor, Chibhabha, Ervine - nothing to be said.

Burl has some grit, I like that. The one redeeming factor is we've still got Moor to come (the grittiest Zim batsman), and Cremer too for that matter. I'd be very tempted to send Cremer in before Raza just to ensure we bat time during the first two sessions.

The bowling was very impressive I thought. Jarvis was good, Mpofu caused problems, Cremer was getting great turn for day one.
I don't think Muzarabani was ready to be picked, but he showed some promise and was the quickest of our bowlers.

Tomorrow's task is to avoid defeat. We can either get rolled for 50 twice and be done by dinner, or we can show some resolve and eke out a total of 200 and somehow try and drag this game out.

[Andybligzz]

On a positive note quinton de boner has a hamstring strain and is going to struggle to keep let alone bat.

[TapsC]

wow.. day night tests are a simple no for me. that was absolutely brutal. the mistake we made was the batting line-up. Taylor and Ervine should have never come in. Cremer Blessing and Jarvis should have come in. Taylor was obviously tired and we all know that Ervine would not have survived those conditions. we need a Raza and PJ special here.

[zimbos_05]

I always thought day/night tests were not fair. Essentially the team bowling under lights has a major advantage, particularly with the new ball, and we have seen this in every day/night test, so it is not really because it is only Zim.

On the other hand though, Zim has to be much better prepared. We cannot blame the conditions and make too many excuses all the time, particularly when the four wickets that fell are of batsmen with experience and who should be performing better. They scored poorly, and no one is expecting them to score at a rate of t20, but they know the ball will move so they need to approach the situation better.

I didn't want to address it in his thread, but it is so obvious how naive he is. Claiming Chamu was our best bowler. Jarvis has lost some pace, but if he is countering that pace with good movement and good length, then he does not need to be too fast.

We always knew SA's bowling would be hard to counter, but I really really wonder how we are preparing for it, and what are we doing so can make sure this threat is nullified.

Would so love to spend even a week with the team just watching their training and the conversations that goes on.

[foreignfield]

Thanks for the updates guys. Wasn't able to watch anything yesterday, but that scoreline is nothing out of the ordinary given the circumstances. There is no batting line-up in the world that would relish to face the SA quicks under lights in their conditions.

If these D/N four-day farces are the future of Test cricket they might as well call it quits pronto.

[tawac]

These day/night test matches are something out of a scifi movie. Even the SA batsmen were really struggling to handle our modest bowlers. It was always going to be open season for Morkel and Co. Hoping for a miracle to day. Burl, Raza, Moor need to get us runs if we are going to make a contest out of this. Otherwise the test match will end today.

[gusman]

Any links for day 2 as yet?