[Match Thread] New Zealand vs Zimbabwe, Only Test

[Jemisi]

Our fielding is the crappiest

[Jemisi]

Vitori still bowling at a pedestrian pace.

[Jemisi]

Hopefully the rain break can get them to regroup and get their heads together. Our two morning sessions have been terrible.

[Flower power]

Mutizwa is used to catching with his gloves on.....

[sloandog]

Good highlights of the 01 tour

[hhm]

Good highlights of the 01 tour

Good thing I woke up to this, rather than the nightmare being dished out by our attack!
I suspect Sky/NZC put this on to remind us just how far we've regressed. Why else would you subject your NZ viewers to a thorough beating they received?

People mention vitori and he only did it against bangladesh but he had a good time of it against the aussie a team when they came over here too

I'll grudgingly hand you the first game when he picked up 5 wickets, but even then, I did say he was expensive, and none of his wickets(apart from Khawaja in the 2nd innings) showed that he was a capable bowler. He took his first wicket in the 21st over, probably a slog by Warner, and would only pick up his second wicket when the second new ball became available, by then NZ already had 300 runs on the board. His last two wickets were of Hilfy followed by a probably aggressive attitude by Paine who was on 98, but they were 9 down! However, the 2nd innings of this match set the tone of what we should really have expected of Vitori going forward!

In the second match, he together with his woeful partner (Jarvis) could only manage 2 lower order wickets between them the entire match. The 'trusted' superior trio of Elton, Price & Mpofu (sadly missing in the current Test match) did all the work, after those two totally wasted the new ball and allowed both openers to sieze the initiative! Being short of FC experience it was also evident that they have no idea how the old ball is used either!

What that tour, and subsequent tours, revealed is that not only were they inept bowlers, but that they are not capable of doing a job for Zim in the first innings, hence we will never have an advantage however long we persist with them! The fact that they have a new ball in hand is inconseqential!

As I pointed out back then, guys saw positives simply because they chose to, not because they were there. I can assure you that had that 1st match against Aus XI been live commentary on cricinfo, then come the 80th over with them 300/5, while Vitori had just one wicket, no one on this forum would've had anything positive to say about him. As fate would have it, only day end scorecards were available, and no effort to appreciate the true findings were 'deemed' necessary!

[ZIMDOGGY]

i havent seen it with my own eyes but its obvious he dropped the sitter of all sitters by the reactions on here and at cricinfo.

what does this tell me?

mutizwas nerves cant handle the big stage with the big dogs.

[hhm]

I also missed it, but as while his batting in the ODIs he's played in since last year, has shown that he certainly does not belong to this level, his keeping was a high point, and he handled himself well. So I wouldn't say it's down to nerves, just an endemic problem with all our players - bar Taibu! Even the likes of Vusi & Elton whom you'd arguably rate our best fielders have also regressed in that department!

With the rain threatening to permanently intervene on our behalf, I took the time to assess how our bowlers have been used:
- Jarvis and Vitori were bowled for just six overs together this morning
- With another frontline seamer - Shingi, plus the spinner Cremer, Taylor chose instead to replace Vitori with Hamilton in the 7th over.
- Jarvis was the more expensive bowler of the two at this point(Vitori 10runs@3.33; Jarvis 16runs@5.33)
- Vitori bowled just 3 overs before he was replaced, while Jarvis was replaced after just 4 overs
- Ross Taylor retired hurt in during Shingi's first over, but Hamilton was persisted with for 3 more overs despite ther being a new less experienced batsman!
- Shingi bowled only 3 overs, yet he instead of Hamilton, was replaced (by Vitori), despite ther being a drinks break in between!
Conlcusions from this:
- Captain has given up on our bowlers
- All the praises about BT being bold were false. Those decisions were made for him as he can neither resist being defensive in his fields, nor be aggressive in his decision-making. Failed to attack a tailender!
- Our so called 'premier fast bowlers' are being underbowled, and given short spells! It doesn't appear as if the debutant( far more experienced opening bowler) is being allowed to operate as a strike bowler, or bowl as quick as he can.

This is all wrong

[Jemisi]

Not sure that those conclusions bear any relation to reality.

[PieChucker]

Comments on this thread alternate between a)complaining about the pace of the bowlers according to the speed gun and b) - moaning about the utter incompetency of the bowlers themselves.
a) Speed. In an age where any club side can get a bowling machine to whang down ball at 140 km's speed only becomes an issue when bowlers start hitting the 150km mark. Line and length are everything - Glen McGrath bowled in the mid 130's for most of his career and he did okay.
b) I suspect Heath Streak may have a better idea of what these bowlers are capable of. From what I saw of Jarvis, I think he's the best fast bowling prospect we've had since Streak. But, it takes a good few years at this level to learn how to remove top batsmen. Vittori is possibly even more talented, he can move the ball both ways and gets a bit of bounce and fizz. He's got a lot to learn and there's no better place to learn than bowling against the best. Both of these guys have the ability to take wickets, what we desperately need. Shingi is a wicket taker too and he's learning that you have to sweat for every wicket, give away nothing and mentally outwit a batter.
There is no point in replacing these guys with the usually run of the mill pie chuckers who are consistent but utterly mediocre.