Its a world first giving a guy captaincy who has never captained a game in his life. And a seamer?
Only in Zim
Even if he'd had 10 ducks he still knows cricket.
Who else in the current/recent Test line up, that’s more or less a certainty to be selected, could have it? Not saying Ngarava is the right choice at all but the candidates are not queuing up for it.
Burl has been nowhere near the Test team for years.
Ngarava is at least one of the first names on the team sheet. Burl doesn't even play first-class cricket.
Neil Johnson, Alistair Campbell, Murray Goodwin, Andy Flower (w), Grant Flower, Dave Houghton, Guy Whittall, Heath Streak (c), Andy Blignaut, Ray Price, Eddo Brandes
Was fun whilst it lasted. Can't afford to drop 2 catches in a match for such a key player. Even if we win the last 2 games, NRR will be hard to overturn.
It's just so frustrating that the team has the capability, but then also has the ability to turn up and be so poor.
Can we please stop with this Munyonga and Musekiwa love fest
To me they have already exceeded expectations. No surprise that when the rest of the batting lineup had to show up they didnt. Musekiwa is a good fielder who had an off day but he is mainly there for his batting. We have all seen how that went.
Another thing is that we somehow seem to always play well in Sri Lanka. I dont know why but their conditions have always given us a chance over the last decade. The unfortunate part is that winning the group then put us in the group of death for the Super 8s
Raza talked about backing players who helped them qualify etc. Now we are getting into a new cycle so im sure Munyonga and Musekiwa won't be automatic picks anymore. That has come to an end. Curran's inclusion suggests that too(not that he would have made a difference yesterday).
Now its just about enjoying the last 2 games and playing fearless cricket. I also hope everyone gets a game. I want to see Clive and Ben come in for the next game. Maphosa for the last. Let them enjoy the moment. A few years from now we will be talking about how we beat Australia and Sri Lanka not losing to the West Indies so let them enjoy the moment.
Zimbabwe needs to take it one game at a time. If they beat India, the Indians are done. This team somehow beat Aus so they can beat SA if they don't drop catches and play their best game. After that they just need SA to beat WI and if luck is on Zimbabwes side, Ind will beat WI on the same day Zim plays its last match.
One thing I've noticed is even the best have been taken to the cleaners for example Chakravarty. India dropped Axar and went for an all rounder instead of Kuldeep who has good record against SA. Yesterday, Cremer was turning it square, the problem is Hetmyer knew he was going to bowl it slow and into him, he backed himself to clear the ropes everytime. Back in the tri-series, Cremer only played 2 matches and the Pakistani lefties were going after him aswell. Some out of the box thinking was needed there. Maybe try bowling a wrong un way outside off and get it to turn away from the lefty so that he has to fetch it. Again, Burl could've been tried but I don't think it would've made a difference in end result since WI were going to post 200 regardless of Hetmyer being dropped twice.
Raza needed to think out of the box aswell. Muzarabani should've had one crack at Hetmyer but he kept on bowling himself. The issue with Razas new action is he doesn't turn it at all, its just pace variations. He used to turn it with his old action. They kept bowling in his arc. One of the members said they can drop Cremer and get Burl to bowl more overs but then again, that can only prove effective if Burl develops a good wrong un cuz ATM, he just gets it to turn away from the right hander. Maybe dropping Wellington was a mistake since Motie & Hosein got sharp turn but Cremer took 2 wickets against SL(one of Nissanka) and Wellington got 0. Motie & Hosein are good but the pitch offered quality spin and Zimbabwe just stuck to their Plan A. The other day they ripped apart Theekshana.
To me they have already exceeded expectations. No surprise that when the rest of the batting lineup had to show up they didnt. Musekiwa is a good fielder who had an off day but he is mainly there for his batting. We have all seen how that went.
I concur with your assessment.
I don't really care about T20 cricket, but Zim's performances in this tournament have made me sit through a few matches. Despite yesterday's disaster, I think the boys can hold the heads high.
A few years from now we will be talking about how we beat Australia and Sri Lanka not losing to the West Indies so let them enjoy the moment.
Could just be my background and way I do sports, but I would rather not dwell on the wins. Yes it is nice to win and those wins were great, and its important to acknowledge them and enjoy them, but teams get better by learning from their mistakes. We don't do that. We continue to dwell on the wins and not work on improving the errors. I don't like how we have all this potential and then we don't really do much with it. It's how we end up in situations like we have with Uganda.
There are heaps of posts supporting Musekiwa, but what has the guy actually done to earn his spot? We can't keep carrying passengers in the team.
