Wellington has already impressed once in a while in his international stint with his batting temperament. Has played an excellent innings by the looks of it today. 66* as I type and a century stand with William Mashinge from the precarious position they were in yesterday. Another case of bowler getting better with the bat, like Mutombodzi, Maruma, Tiripano?
So the season starts with a typical Goats' rearguard action.
Chatara bowling to Williams and Ervine: at least that sounds like proper FC cricket. Willow down, Slug still there.
The goats have really hit back well after day 1, they’re well ahead now thanks to a good all round bowling effort from their pace attack, Mashinge gets 3 !
Kasuza & Mawoyo had a good start looking to lay claim for an openers spot against Sri Lanka, unfortunately Tino seems to have picked up an injury but Kasuza scored 86, would have been good to see him get to three figures.
I feel the Goats missed a trick by not declaring & having 4’overs at the Tuskers’ openers before stumps, will be interesting to see if the Goats can force a result on Day 4.
In the other game there will certainly be a result with the Eagles needing just another 2 wickets for victory against the Rhinos. Prince Masaurve unbeaten on 59 at stumps also doing a good job at putting his hand up for that opening spot.
Unfortunately the Rhinos have ‘lived up to expectations’ as they’ve really struggled in this match, unfortunately their more senior players apart from Prince & Chisoro haven’t really performed.
Yeah, a pretty sad result for the Rhinos, but not sure how they can turn it around. As jaybro says, having Madziva at 5 and Chisoro at 6 tells you the story of their batting depth, the lack of it that is. Moor and Burl, when they feature, would get it to better shape hopefully.
I definitely did not expect the Mountaineers to overcome Tuskers though. The Manicaland team again showing the grit they have always shown to do consistently well. Wellington setting the tone with that first innings knock and then Mashinge doing well with bat and ball. Roy Kaia coming to the party on the last day with his off spin! I genuinely thought Tiripano left the declaration too late and also lack of intent towards the end of that thrid innings, but well, there was enough time to sneak a win!
Kevin Kasuza and Prince Masvaure have played good knocks with an eye on the spot emptied by Masakadza in the longer format. Eagles top order too had some good scores though not kicking on. Would love to see Kasuza get a Zim cap. He seems to perform when there is no national team selection and go off the boil around national selections. Hope he can continue this form.
Hard to get any conclusive answers from one road but lets hope by January or when ever the Tests are being played the guys have some solid time in the middle & solid numbers from their outings
Hard to get any conclusive answers from one road but lets hope by January or when ever the Tests are being played the guys have some solid time in the middle & solid numbers from their outings
Its not appropriate to compare four day games stats for T20 selection, but since its Zimbabwe this type of comparision isn't wrong.
I definitely did not expect the Mountaineers to overcome Tuskers though. The Manicaland team again showing the grit they have always shown to do consistently well. Wellington setting the tone with that first innings knock and then Mashinge doing well with bat and ball. Roy Kaia coming to the party on the last day with his off spin! I genuinely thought Tiripano left the declaration too late and also lack of intent towards the end of that thrid innings, but well, there was enough time to sneak a win!
Kevin Kasuza and Prince Masvaure have played good knocks with an eye on the spot emptied by Masakadza in the longer format. Eagles top order too had some good scores though not kicking on. Would love to see Kasuza get a Zim cap. He seems to perform when there is no national team selection and go off the boil around national selections. Hope he can continue this form.
Yes, a good all-round team win for the Goats, but the Tuskers have absolutely no depth in their batting line-up. Get Williams and Ervine out and you are into the tail. Bobby Mpofu batting at 8 says it all
Yes, a good all-round team win for the Goats, but the Tuskers have absolutely no depth in their batting line-up. Get Williams and Ervine out and you are into the tail. Bobby Mpofu batting at 8 says it all
Yeah, but I thought Chari, Nkosana Mpofu, Ervine and Williams (and Raza when he is back) makes it a solid top order (probably better than all others). Specially with Chari's improved domestic record and with Nkosana Mpofu who has come across as a difficult-to-dislodge kind of customer + now that he has some experience from playing overseas. But both the openers failing helped the Goats.
The Tuskers need to make the hard call & drop Nyumbu or Ndlovu! It really wrecks the balance of their XI having both in there, especially considering the lack of a seam bowling allrounder.
They could bring back Luke Jongwe but who knows what form he would be in? Masuku batting 7 & Mpofu at 8 is ridiculous. Generally for some unexplained reason spinners can usually hold the bat a bit, but neither Nyumbu or Ndlovu can so you give yourself a long tail when you play both.
The inclusion of Williams & possibly Raza makes it even more ridiculous to play both Nyumbu & Ndlovu, you could argue the former two are better bowlers anyways.
