[Match Thread] Bangladesh v Zimbabwe : 1st Test, Sylhet

[eugene]

I think Zimbabwe remain favourites but like many others I have no idea why we approached our batting the way we did. Why was Taylor in T20 mode? If only we could bat like that in actual T20s!

[Train Driver]

Can't understand for one second why Masakadza had Jarvis and Chatara opening, why on earth didn't he use spin from one end? If he and the selectors don't trust Mavuta and Masakadza Jnr then why the hell did they pick them? A massive opportunity missed and it just let the Bangla openers settle in, bad, bad, bad lack of tactical commonsense

[jaybro]

Lots of nervous people here and plenty of ‘why did he do that’ and ‘why didn’t he do this’ in the end of the day I think BT and Raza had the right idea they just played a couple of bad shots.

Chatara and Jarvis did the damage in the first innings so they had to take the new ball.

I’ll be interested how many overs Mavuta gets in this innings ?? Do you bring him in early when you have runs to play with? Or is he too risky??

I have a feeling Raza and Williams will do most of the bowling as pointed out Mavuta is too erratic and Wellington is too predictable.

Long day ahead I honestly feel very confident 317 is a big chase in these conditions, you can say it’s not a minefield yet but apart from BT no one has scored freely

I can’t wait for this day only 7 hours to go till the day starts

[Jemisi]

It is the SL game making us nervous. To have a chance like this is rare and everyone would have preferred another 100 runs.

I don't have a problem with the seamers having a go. Chatara had a straight forward edge go through the slips. A standard wicket taking delivery and they both were in the right zone enough of the time.

Mavuta & Wellington was probably one young spinner too many. But it shouldn't matter.

[Kriterion_BD]

Can't understand for one second why Masakadza had Jarvis and Chatara opening, why on earth didn't he use spin from one end? If he and the selectors don't trust Mavuta and Masakadza Jnr then why the hell did they pick them? A massive opportunity missed and it just let the Bangla openers settle in, bad, bad, bad lack of tactical commonsense

5 wickets on a totally dead track (more so for seam bowlers). Masakadza made the right move. He may have persisted a bit too long with the quicks given that they only beat the bat twice from the first 60 deliveries. What is interesting is Jayed swung the ball throughout his spells (conventional and reverse) in the first innings, but got no conventional swing in the 2nd innings, and only a bit of reverse later on. Jarvis and Chatara at least swung it for a few balls in the opening few overs.

I'd have had Raza on by the 8th over. Still only 2 overs later. Masakadza has some margin of error given he's defending a sizeable target of 321.

His only mistake so far, captaincy wise, is taking that review. But that review shows that ZIM are starting to get nervous.

[ZIMDOGGY]

Taylor and Raza were playing positive cricket and taking advantage of fielding placings, which in turn would make the fielding team adapt and leave more holes for singles.

For all the people saying ‘why didn’t they go defensive and block it out’ Check yourself. That strategy simply doesn’t work. It’s all well and good to block out for an hour for 20 runs but when two wickets fall you’ve lost 2 for 20. Which could have been achieved with a couple of calculated hits.

No successful teams do that anymore, to try, requires nerves of steel and a lot of talent that requires blocking out a full day. Not many batsman can do this. When De villiers, Faf and the staffers tried, they could only last a day.

Keep runs ticking is best strategy

[Kriterion_BD]

Taylor and Raza were playing positive cricket and taking advantage of fielding placings, which in turn would make the fielding team adapt and leave more holes for singles.

For all the people saying ‘why didn’t they go defensive and block it out’ Check yourself. That strategy simply doesn’t work. It’s all well and good to block out for an hour for 20 runs but when two wickets fall you’ve lost 2 for 20. Which could have been achieved with a couple of calculated hits.

No successful teams do that anymore, to try, requires nerves of steel and a lot of talent that requires blocking out a full day. Not many batsman can do this. When De villiers, Faf and the staffers tried, they could only last a day.

Keep runs ticking is best strategy

Exactly.

Taylor and Raza had the right idea 100%. Had they each score another 15 more...BD would be chasing 350. Not that 321 is a cakewalk, lol. Regardless, you've set a team a 4th innings target which is bigger than any innings total in the match. Thats a job well done no matter what.

However, as a BD fan I hope that ZIM are reliant on just Raza and Williams and for bowling as many are suggesting. It seems as though Jarvis and Chatara won't get much from this pitch and if Mavuta and Wellington are ineffective it puts all the pressure on a two man bowling attack which could be fatigued if BD bats well.

Damn I love Test cricket even when your team is getting annhilated, it offers up beauties in terms of strategy and outcome.

[brmtaylor.com admin]

I disagree with the above - when we were batting there was still 2-3 days of play remaining. There was absolutely no impetus at that stage to play in an attacking manner. Wicket retention should have been the order of the day... keep BD in the field for a long, long time and accumulate in the process.

Instead we seemed to blaze away and now there's no time pressure on BD at all. Then can go at under 2 an over and get home comfortably... basically they just need a couple of guys to bat like Moor did and they'll win. No risk necessary.

[eugene]

There is a middle ground here, I was never calling for a block-a-thon, but BT was in T20 mode. Comfortable accumulation was the way to go.

[zimbos_05]

If it was Day 4, the T20 approach might have had merit, however it was day 3. There was no need to go all out. It's like we forget that we can keep the score ticking over with singles and twos. Even if every ball goes for a single, thats 6 runs an over. That is more than you need in test cricket. Learning to knock the ball around and being smart with the bat is something we are lacking so much. If we can improve in this area, there is no reason why scores of close to 300 in any format (bar T20) cant be a regular thing for us.

Zim does not have to be fancy, it just has to be smarter.