Mpofu & Tiripano are useless. Dry pitch, condition ideal for reverse swing. Both these bowlers neither have pace nor skills to deceive batsman, simply depends on batsman to make wrong.
Zimbabwe Pace Department is a big vacant. Since Jarvis retire, Vitori banned, none of them looked threatening. Streak & Ntini should think of new talents here, taking wickets has become dependent only on Cremer.
Clearly Chatara was deemed not fit enough, and the coaching felt they needed both Mpofu and Tiripano just in case one of them breaks down.
It might sound crazy, but after considering all of these factors, why didn't Streak come out of retirement for this one? He outbowled Fidel Edwards last year(plus some favourites' man a certain Sean Ervine), and yet Fidel just got called up to the West Indies Test squad.
The moment Streak decided Nathan Waller would fetch on this pitch he should have considered himself vs Mpofu. Afterall both him and Tiripano have only bowled 10 overs each right?
A bit disappointed really with the captaincy. Definitely should have bowled Tiripano and Masakadza (if not Mpofu) at least at some stage to change things up a bit. In fact, opening with Raza was fine, but the other end should have been Tiripano. At least for a few overs. We effectively opened with two part timers. Not even Cremer himself! And surely towards the end of the day was when the time was ripe for some frustratingly accurate medium pace of Masakadza.
We need to be more imaginative tomorrow or this can slip away very quickly.
Zimbabwe doing well for a change. Its nice when we are not being completely out classed by a side. Its should have been a 5 match series then we could have had a chance of winning is 3-2.
CHRISTOPHER MPOFU: 'The problem was fear of failure. I used to think that when I played, if I didn't do well in one game, I would lose my place for the next one but now I've let go of that'
I am still backing Zimbabwe for the win. I think the pressure is on SL, not Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe are expected to lose, a test loss at home to Zimbabwe for SL on the other hand is a major embarrassment. If only Chatara was fit. We are essentially a one-man attack (Cremer) with a bunch of part-timers backing him up.
Neil Johnson, Alistair Campbell, Murray Goodwin, Andy Flower (w), Grant Flower, Dave Houghton, Guy Whittall, Heath Streak (c), Andy Blignaut, Ray Price, Eddo Brandes
I think Hami and Tiripano have to bowl here.. just wicket to wicket military mediums.. force them to take a chance with some big shots. We need an economic bowler on one side and Cremer to do the rest. It's unfortunate that Cremer always bowls one loose delivery an over.. the morning sessions have been the hardest to bat on.. 3 wickets there and it's our game.. their tail doesn't wag as much as ours and on each of their specialist batsmen is injured..
I think Hami and Tiripano have to bowl here.. just wicket to wicket military mediums.. force them to take a chance with some big shots
That's going to be my strategy exactly. 5 overs each by those two on the one end while Cremer bowls from the other, and ensures there are no hit me balls from his side. These 20 overs would decide whether we can win tomorrow or not. If we start with other part time spinners, we might leak runs and they won't feel any pressure.
I am still backing Zimbabwe for the win. I think the pressure is on SL, not Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe are expected to lose, a test loss at home to Zimbabwe for SL on the other hand is a major embarrassment. If only Chatara was fit. We are essentially a one-man attack (Cremer) with a bunch of part-timers backing him up.
yeah I think Zimbabwe are ahead at this stage. had SL been 150-1 as I had expected they would have been ahead. 160-2 would be even stevens. 170-3 means ZIM are ahead but dont have the game in the bag.
200-5 tomorrow and its all over. but if SL get to 250-4, they will probably scrape by with a 2 wicket win.