Zimbabwe Vs Sri Lanka | 1st ODI | 6th Jan 2024

[TapsC2]

Hopefully Shumba does something because leaving Kaia out for him is a big call even if he isn’t scoring runs

[TapsC2]

This is why those fast bowlers from Pakistan are important. Chameera is not necessarily the best bowler out there but he has gas. We need our guys facing that kind of pace often.

I would even suggest they bring 7 guys next season and target specific games to put 2 guys in. For example against a full strength Eagles side there should be 2 of them to really test them. The Eagles at full stregnth would have 1 guy from Pakistan, Ngarava and Chivanga which wouldn’t be fair.

[sam_ahm]

Fair points Taps, I'd have taken defeat over a washout yesterday because it is more important to get game time over saving an ODI defeat. I don't know but Zimbabwe needs to get more talent come through and the upcoming U19 WC might give us a bit of a glimpse. There is some promise there - Ronak Patel, Mathew Schonken and Panashe Taruvinga.

[Googly]

There is absolutely no way these u19's are any better than Welch Jr, Madhevere, Shumba, Bhawa, Myers and Bennett, who are the best guys we've seen in a while. No danger!

It's extremely easy to replicate pace in practice. Just use a sidearm and if the guy cant throw at 90mph then stand closer so the reaction time is the same or less. " Practice harder than you play" but in bursts. You can't face 90 for an hour in the nets, especially if some clever dick is just trying to hurt the batsman. Most batters o ly have a set number of hits in them before they get gun shy.
I watch some of our quicker bowlers bowling short stuff in horrendously dangerous nets, that's not good either.

[Googly]

Both those dismissals were a bit "soft" yesterday. Great deliveries, but they should have coped with them. TK just had a brain fade, he knew that ball was going to hoop in.
Craig knew it was going away and should have probably left it. Not sure how he prepares when he had opportunities for some game time prior to this and didn't play.

[Googly]

This is why those fast bowlers from Pakistan are important. Chameera is not necessarily the best bowler out there but he has gas. We need our guys facing that kind of pace often.

I would even suggest they bring 7 guys next season and target specific games to put 2 guys in. For example against a full strength Eagles side there should be 2 of them to really test them. The Eagles at full stregnth would have 1 guy from Pakistan, Ngarava and Chivanga which wouldn’t be fair.

When we're having to look for unknown fast bowlers from Pakistan its not good. Now asking them for more?
Where's that 6ft 4 Falcon lad that looks promising? He's not even in the u19 squad.
When you've got so few schools playing what are the odds of finding a genuine quick?
If Falao and the others haven't got quicker after their stint in India then finding some yards is clearly not easy.
Do you recall Streak and Al Campbell (I think?) once tried to have a comp to find unknown quick bowlers.
Even our mediums, with the exception of Evans, don't have enough control, nor do we have any guys that are known swing bowlers.
They need to manage Ngarava carefully and not over bowl him. He looks prone to injury. He works hard and I think will focus on white ball. We will be more stuffed without him.

[TapsC2]

The problem we have is that the guys with the frame to bowl quick don’t play cricket. They are there for sure but cricket isn’t as popular as people think. At junior level the schools that do play probably have the rugby forwards opening the bowling. Those guys will tend not to play much cricket after high school. The sports which usually have the same guys really passionate about it are cricket and hockey. Or maybe add squash or tennis. You won’t get many fast bowlers from that.

The kids playing soccer, rugby, basketball and some athletics are where you will find your fast bowlers. I think Basketball and cricket clash in terms of sports you can play. That’s a problem right there. Cricket is probably the third or 4th most popular sport with the kids. It just has a lot of funding and sometimes that can make it look a lot more popular than it is.

A talent scouting mission can work for fast bowlers. I genuinely believe you could find kids with raw pace and train them. ZC also needs to market the sport as something that can change your life but unfortunately the schools who do play cricket mainly have kids from good backgrounds so they have multiple options. Not their fault. Just the reality. They have resources.

[TapsC2]

In terms of popularity I would say for the kids it’s football, rugby, Basketball then cricket followed by hockey.

Some of the kids who play waterpolo could probably be decent fast bowlers but again that clashes with cricket and basketball.

[mnelson68]

Both those dismissals were a bit "soft" yesterday. Great deliveries, but they should have coped with them. TK just had a brain fade, he knew that ball was going to hoop in.
Craig knew it was going away and should have probably left it. Not sure how he prepares when he had opportunities for some game time prior to this and didn't play.

In defence of TK , Kataino had just faced 12 dot balls and TK may have felt under more pressure than usual to score straight away hence playing a loose shot.

[zimbos_05]

Who's our coach this series?

Raza probably bro, got his shady fingers in all kinds of pies he was pumped up and it was a solid day for him today.

We get it. You're biased. No need to make every single post about it