Match Thread : Sri Lanka Tour Of Zimbabwe 2020 | 1st Test | Zimbabwe V/s Sri Lanka | Harare

[brmtaylor.com admin]

Apart from being boring, what’s that achieve? After an hour of fight, a couple of quick wickets (this is zim so it’s likely) and it’s all for nothing.

I think 3 an over is ok though. Easy singles and a boundary every other over.

Tires and demoralises the bowlers, keeps them in the field for longer. And most importantly, the more time we eat up - given the weather - the more we remove an SL win as a potential outcome and increase the likelihood of a draw. It would be awful if 2 days were lost to rain but we still lost because we showed "positive intent" in the first innings.

It's our first game back in a long time and we've got 3 guys on debut. Just ease back into it I think. Draw this one, and turn the 2nd Test into a winner takes all contest.

We are 0-100 against a weakish side.
Why not try and win?

I think we have to be realistic about our chances. Nyauchi and Ndlovu are both on debut so we can't expect much from them, and Tiripano is a good containment option but not a prolific wicket taker. How do we take 20 wickets? Jarvis would need to probably get 10 of them, with Williams/Raza maybe getting 5-6 between them.

[ZIMDOGGY]

And bogging down batsman doesn’t demoralise bowlers really.

Pumping them all over the place like a slut is what does that.

In fact it leads to this. Pressure and wickets.

[foreignfield]

Is this only me, or are there more people wearing Zim one-day shirts in the ground than usually?

[zimlover]

Prince played well,looks like he did his job very well,Still looks very unfit though

Good knock overall

[brmtaylor.com admin]

And bogging down batsman doesn’t demoralise bowlers really.

Pumping them all over the place like a slut is what does that.

In fact it leads to this. Pressure and wickets.

Nah, that was a silly shot. Why did he play it?
There was no pressure on him to try and go over the top. Who cares if he got bogged down for a few overs.
This spinner appears pretty average to me, just wait for him to drop one short and pounce on that.

Anyway, it doesn't detract from what was otherwise a good opening partnership and exactly the start we needed. Now we're into our experienced players and we'll find out how flat this pitch really is.

[Free Spirit]

I disagree Free Spirit, I think these guys are approaching this innings perfectly. The longer they stay out there, the run rate will improve naturally.
But as it stands right now, SL will be getting pretty frustrated at how things are going - so just keep grinding them down. If the opportunity comes up to play an aggressive shot every now and then, by all means take it as they have done. I hope they just keep doing what they are doing.

i think dirk summed it up well when he said it’s all good playing solid and being cautious 41 from 153 isn’t the worst in the world but once you get into a mindset of defend first and we’ll catch up later it can produce false shots (Prince case it point), modern day Test cricket 180 or 190 in a day is way under par

[Googly]

Really good crowd as well

[brmtaylor.com admin]

I disagree Free Spirit, I think these guys are approaching this innings perfectly. The longer they stay out there, the run rate will improve naturally.
But as it stands right now, SL will be getting pretty frustrated at how things are going - so just keep grinding them down. If the opportunity comes up to play an aggressive shot every now and then, by all means take it as they have done. I hope they just keep doing what they are doing.

i think dirk summed it up well when he said it’s all good playing solid and being cautious 41 from 153 isn’t the worst in the world but once you get into a mindset of defend first and we’ll catch up later it can produce false shots (Prince case it point), modern day Test cricket 180 or 190 in a day is way under par

Why do they have to catch up later? Just keep batting.
If we're 1/190 at stumps I'd be thrilled with that.

[zimlover]

Kevin has just made the best of his opportunity,this effectively puts PJ Moor on notice and takes away any chance Ryan burl has of taking an opening slot.

Ryan Burl debut looked very average and looked like he was not ready to play a test match.

A very calm head by Kasuza and Prince these two will probably get a few more games based on today’s knock

[zimfan1]

I disagree Free Spirit, I think these guys are approaching this innings perfectly. The longer they stay out there, the run rate will improve naturally.
But as it stands right now, SL will be getting pretty frustrated at how things are going - so just keep grinding them down. If the opportunity comes up to play an aggressive shot every now and then, by all means take it as they have done. I hope they just keep doing what they are doing.

i think dirk summed it up well when he said it’s all good playing solid and being cautious 41 from 153 isn’t the worst in the world but once you get into a mindset of defend first and we’ll catch up later it can produce false shots (Prince case it point), modern day Test cricket 180 or 190 in a day is way under par

Yes but tests are not going five days. Which tells us that 180 after day 1 is fine.