Westerns performance

[brmtaylor.com admin]

How can Westerns be performing so badly? On paper they have quite a good list. Here are their stats so far for the Logan Cup: http://stats.cricinfo.com/zimbabwedomes ... tournament

They have three "star" players: Mark Vermeulen, Sean Williams and Charles Coventry.
Unfortunately for Westerns, all of their star players are batsmen. Further still, none of them have fired. One of them (Vermeulen) is injured and another (Williams) has only played 1 of a possible 4 matches. Coventry has been available for all the matches and has played, but has not hurt the opposition with the bat.

In the bowling department they have some good players in Mpofu and Mupariwa. Really, these two players should be tearing the opposition apart at this level - but they aren't. I suspect they are better suited to one-day cricket, and neither of them are in the first eleven for Zimbabwe at the moment. Mpofu has taken 12 wickets at 29.66, Mupariwa 11 wickets at 34.63. Again, at this level they should be doing better. Also, both are conceding over 3 an over which is a bit expensive considering who they are bowling against.

Their recognised allrounder Keith Dabengwa has put in a bit here and there with bat and ball, but really hasn't done enough. Being captain, he hasn't led from the front that's for sure.

The good news for Westerns - in a way - is that the failure of their experienced players has meant the less experienced players have had to step up. Freedom Takarusenga at the top of the order has placed an incredible importance on keeping his wicket intact. Opening the batting he has a strike rate of just 33.83. His average of 22.57 is quite low, but it is steadily rising. The other good news in the batting department is Mark Mabuza, the lower middle order batsman who scored his maiden First Class hundred a few days ago.

John Nyumbu is their leading wicket taker with 13 at 28.53. While you expect better returns from the international players, Nyumbu hasn't had the advantage of playing international cricket so I think this is a good return from him. And of course a 5 wicket return against Easterns is no mean feat. Acknowledgement should go to Takarusenga as well, as he took 4 wickets against them.

So what went wrong for Westerns? Bad luck. Had Vermeulen and Coventry been firing since the start of the tournament they could have easily notched up a couple of hundreds between them - I think most people (I certainly was) were expecting Vermeulen to break records. Maybe we were expecting too much from him after such a long time out of the First Class scene.

Also, missing Williams for the first few rounds didn't help. The Vermeulen injury has denied him any chance of batting himself into form. Their international bowlers didn't fire either, had Mpofu or Mupariwa taken a few 5-fers perhaps things would have turned out differently.

Of course, the tournament is not over - but Westerns cannot win it. So it is just a matter of working on the basics from here. Their batting is a major concern, so they need to try something differently. They've tried a lot of different openers. Takarusenga has been a regular, but partnering him has been Coventry, Ngulube and Madhiri off the top of my head. Ngulube has the best First Class record and if I recall correctly has scored a century as an opener, so I think he and Takarusenga should open. Mabuza and Mupariwa might also be more suited in the top order based on recent form. Their bowling is definitely lacking penetration; Mpofu and Mupariwa aren't tearing apart the opposition like Price and Cremer are for example. There isn't much they can do about this really - their fastest bowler in Ntuli has left, and Ncube hasn't provided too much support. What they probably need to do is focus on their strengths, and that's spin bowling. So they should base their bowling around Nyumbu - sure, start the innings off with Mpofu and Ncube - but don't be afraid to introduce the spinners early (which to their credit they have done a bit more recently). But with Williams now back in the side, there is no reason why they can't have extended spells of spin. They have got quality a variety of spin at their disposal in Nyumbu, Takarusenga, Williams and Dabengwa.

[aydee]

The batting has been useless basically... Everyone expected Coventry & Vermeulen to make mountains, and they've scored almost nothing between them. Williams was not much better after his comeback either. Dabengwa, the other experienced player in their lineup, has also been a flop.

With the ball, I think Mpofu is quite an overrated player & I'm not that surprised by his figures. Mupariwa lacks pace, and is definitely more suited to one-day cricket. Dabengwa has also been someway short of match winning with the ball as well...

[zulu]

Yes I aggree Mpofu and Mupariwas performances recently have been well below par considering they are regularly selected for the national team, its just odd to see how westerns have performed so poorly considering the players in the sqaud. For me the man who has disapointed me the most is C. Coventry he is a class act, I expected much more from him and hasnt done enough for a international call up yet.

I didnt expect much from M.Vermeulean, he has been out of competitive cricket for a while now, it is going to take time for him to find his feet I reckon after a few more A team tours will do him alot of good.

I think its time to try a new seamer in the national team and its pretty obvious that A.Manyumwa is the man who deserves the spot he has bowled brilliantly this year. I think Rainsford, Chigumbura and Manyumwa will be a fairly strong seam attack.

[Train Driver]

I certainly wouldn't be disappointed if Manyumwa was to be selected for the national side but i think that his stats show that he is much better suited to the long form of the game which, of course, he is not likely to get much of with the situation as it is at the moment

1st class - 67 @ 15.85 against List A - 18 @ 40.88

http://content-search.cricinfo.com/zimb ... 35535.html