[Match thread] Only Test - Zimbabwe vs Bangladesh

[Kopje]

fantastic display from the boys, let's encourage them and finish of Bangladesh..

[brmtaylor.com admin]

This has been a very mature display by the batsmen today, particularly Masakadza and Taylor. Often that's not a term used to describe the Zimbabwean cricket team, what with the collapses and wickets at inopportune times, etc. But today it all clicked at the right time, even more impressive given the pressure of the situation.

Masakadza has looked very good, I hope he can bring up his three figures early tomorrow morning. Taylor looked shaky early on, with that risky single and that near catch by Mushfiqur. But by the end of the day he was playing very well, hopefully he too can continue where he left off tomorrow morning.

Overall, a really pleasing day of Test cricket.

[TheBradDevil]

Stumps 264/2. Great day for Zim cricket. Hope this pair pushes on for a big one, if we up our rate a tad tomorrow we can push for 500. Godwilling we bat the whole day and get 600, i dont think we will bat twice then. Good to see Zim placing a high value on their wicket, everyone is impressing with temperament. I hope its not too soon, but WE TOLD U SO SUCKERZ !!! Tomorrow is a new day

[Boundary]

Pleasing scoreline. I only caught the beginning and end but I kept touch with the scores and I must say, the temperament shown is amazing. I hope we push patiently on tomorrow and get a big score. But one session at a time.

[eugene]

A great first day for Zimbabwe. Perhaps we could have upped the csoring rate a bit to really put the Bangladeshis under pressure but all-in-all I am extremely pleased with the batting effort. Our tail is long so we need our batsmen to continue tomorrow where they left off today. I fear that this pitch isn't conducive to a result other than a batting dominated draw but maybe it will start to deteriorate on days 4 and 5.

[eugene]

I was also happy that Taylor and Masakadza batted out until the close of day. Too many times Zimbabwe would have lost 1,2 or 3 wickets in the final 15 overs and thrown away the advantage. Not today!

[hhm]

I hope its not too soon, but WE TOLD U SO SUCKERZ !!!

I'm pretty sure they heard you the first time!

With two rookie bowlers in the side - rookies in every sense of the word in FC, let alone international cricket - I'm not about to be overly optimistic. I saw signs of Taylor being quick to change his bowlers once his seamers started getting spanked heavily upfront in the tour games which means they didn't get a chance to prove how they react under that pressure, so Mpofu&Price will probably do a lot of the bowling. In Jarvis, Vitori & Elton the Bangladeshis are bound to get on top of at least two of them if wickets don't fall early.

I don't know about you guys, but to me the Bangladeshis look disoriented and hardly deserving to be a Test side judging from what's on display. I reckon even Afghanistan(who are better than Ire&Scot in my view) would be able to beat or draw against them if they carry on like this! Nowhere near the Bangladesh who played Test cricket last time around. Perhaps the poor showing in the WC, and the loss in the 3 day game shouldn't be dismissed lightly.

All in all, I'm satisfied with today's play. First game after 6 years, with pretty much the same guys who were turning into cannon fodder for the Bangladeshis themselves, I can't ask for more. The fun starts tomorrow.

[brmtaylor.com admin]

Yeah, I agree with hhm. It's not time to crack open the champagne yet... all today's performance demonstrates is that we played well today. There's still four days to go, and we don't know yet how the bowlers will fare (or the Bangladeshi batsmen for that matter).

The best thing we can do is to bat and bat and bat. As the commentators said, at 2/264 Zimbabwe are well positioned to bat Bangladesh out of this game. By stumps tomorrow, it would be fantastic if we had enough runs to ensure that only one team can win this match. But as someone above mentioned, this is a session by session proposition. The Masakadza/Taylor partnership is very important, they are already established and just need to press on.

[Dr_Situ(ZimFanatic)]

I don't know about you guys, but to me the Bangladeshis look disoriented and hardly deserving to be a Test side judging from what's on display. I reckon even Afghanistan(who are better than Ire&Scot in my view) would be able to beat or draw against them if they carry on like this! Nowhere near the Bangladesh who played Test cricket last time around. Perhaps the poor showing in the WC, and the loss in the 3 day game shouldn't be dismissed lightly.

They were granted test status on India's assistance and we(read Zim) earned it. They were too lucky they got the chance to play a severely depleted side to record away wins.

[maehara]

Comparing the predictions at the beginning of the day to the score at the end of the day is fun. Most of what could be said has already been said, so: that was a bloody good day for us. More please.

Last time we played a Test, there was no ZCF and ZCN had about 10 readers. How times have changed.