[Match Thread] 1st 'A' Test (Zimbabwe v New Zealand)

[maehara]

New Zealand A 426 & 280/5d
Zimbabwe A 365/7d & 243/5

Match drawn.

[aydee]

Overall a decent effort. As with the full team, there is a lack of penetration in the bowling, and the two who performed best, Ncube and Panyangara are merely steady swing bowlers. The batting was very impressive though, considering that the New Zealand attack probably has getting on for 300 test wickets between them.

[brmtaylor.com admin]

Why was the game drawn with about 11 overs to spare? Bad light?

It would be a bit disappointing if the captains agreed to call it off. Sure, it would have been highly unlikely to get about 10 an over but with Chakabva and an in-form Mawoyo at the crease it would have been worth having a crack.

On that subject - unless there were some extenuating circumstances - why was Ervine sent in at at number 5? At that point an outright win looked possible still, and as good a form as Ervine has in First Class matches he's not known for scoring quickly. Chakabva on the other hand, who is coming off a century, is! So I think they missed a trick there.

But I suppose you can't complain too much about a draw, probably most of the people who knew this game was on thought New Zealand A would run away with it. So a solid performance to at least prove those doubters wrong.

Similarly for the South Africa Twenty20's, I think most were predicting blowouts (Fanie de Villiers prematurely wrote off Zimbabwe at the innings break today). While the first game wasn't exactly tight, neither game was one-sided. Zimbabwe were arguably in winning positions at certain times in both games, and while the bowling has been poor the overall quality of the batting I think exceeded most people's expectations.

[bayhaus]

the overall quality of the batting I think exceeded most people's expectations.

The real test for our batsmen will come when they come up against dale steyn and our bowlers if they thought things things were tough will have pull up their sox and buckle up to bowl to the ALll Star line up of Smith, Amla, AB, Kallis. Excited about this one!! Go Zim!

[sloandog]

Ya that's what worries me. If youngsters like Ingram, Miller and Kuhn are scoring runs against us, god only knows what the rest of the unit will do. But I've got faith in the team, i'm sure they pull their act together for the friday ODI.