Zimbabwe A Beat Ireland By 7 Wickets

[aydee]

Just to show how positive these performances are by Zim A, here are some A-team results from the "good old days" before the first strike:

A tour by Namibia in 02, where they comfortably won the series: http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/S ... 02-03.html

And an "Emerging nations" tournament in Zim, where Zim A contrived to finish 5th, behind Kenya, Netherlands, Ireland & even Denmark!: http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/S ... 99-00.html

unbelieve given the strength of these zim A teams. We got to keep these boys around at all cost. One thing for sure is that cricket is not dying in zimbabwe. We got to give zimbabwe cricket some credit for a change. I wonder if zimbabwe A play aganist the national team who will win

Especially considering that associate cricket is appreciably stronger now than it was 5 or 10 years ago. as they have much more money and regular fixtures these days...

[brmtaylor.com admin]

Was it a full strength Ireland side? If it was the same as this team - http://content.cricinfo.com/statsguru/e ... 25581.html - then it is a great performance by Zimbabwe A. And credit to Cephas Zhuwawo as well, from being possibly the worst batsman I have seen (lack of technique, lack of runs, etc in the Al Barakah Cup) he is turning into a decent Zimbabwe A player.

I'm still a bit skeptical about the strength of the A team, there's a bit of me that can't help but feel we aren't quite as good as these results suggest (but then again, maybe the Vermeulen factor is playing a part - his presence alone would be worth something). The true test is how the Zimbabwe A team would stack up against other A teams, I think more A team tours need to be arranged.

I would love a Bangladesh A tour right now (home or away), with this current squad. I think we'd do very well.

[aydee]

Was it a full strength Ireland side? If it was the same as this team - http://content.cricinfo.com/statsguru/e ... 25581.html - then it is a great performance by Zimbabwe A. And credit to Cephas Zhuwawo as well, from being possibly the worst batsman I have seen (lack of technique, lack of runs, etc in the Al Barakah Cup) he is turning into a decent Zimbabwe A player.

I'm still a bit skeptical about the strength of the A team, there's a bit of me that can't help but feel we aren't quite as good as these results suggest (but then again, maybe the Vermeulen factor is playing a part - his presence alone would be worth something). The true test is how the Zimbabwe A team would stack up against other A teams, I think more A team tours need to be arranged.

I would love a Bangladesh A tour right now (home or away), with this current squad. I think we'd do very well.

If anything, it'll be stronger than that team, as Eoin Morgan, who is an England A player, is available.

[maehara]

Two "big" names missed the match through injury - Andre Botha (good Irish name, that ) and Kyle McCallan, but otherwise, this was the first-choice Irish squad.

[Detective RDS]

Niall O Brein is a fantastic batsman as far as I have seen him and the pace of Boyd Rankin was also very impressive in the WC 2007.

Eoin Morgan has a very good domestic and international record.

Trend Johnston is also a good allrounder.I think everyone can remember his 'Chicken dance'.

So,beating an Ireland team with the likes of these players is really appreciable.

[bayhaus]

I have been in SA for the past two years and have noticed that SAs ground roots programme is weak and cricket i really played by what we would call A schools to Private schools only. If zim just has a consistant league we will take out Bang, NZ, Eng and even WI REGULARLY. Then hopefully all these guys who are all over the place come back and fight for places we have exciting cricketing times ahead us!

[maehara]

Scorecard!

http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Score ... 14575.html