First ODI Inquiry Thread

[zimfan1]

Where did it all go wrong?

- Bad selection
- Poor shot selection from batsman
- Poor captaincy
- Poor bowling in terms of lines and length
- Sloppy fielding including serveral over throws

[CrimsonAvenger]

Could not follow the match today, but looks like the biggest blame must go to the team composition. I had thought Chibhabha as an opening bowler experiment was a thing of the past. Wasn't to be. Rainsford is a must, given his recent international form. Get him in in place of Matsikenyeri, and swap Chibhabha and Williams in the batting order for the next match.

Great comeback knock by Vermeulen. Shame he could not get to three figure mark.

[Eshen]

Selection: Don't think using Chibhabha as an opening bowler was a such a bright idea. If there was a second pacer along Chigu to apply more pressure on Bangladeshi top order in early overs, you had a better chance to take more wickets. May be Matsi should be benched to bring in Rainsford.

Shot Selection: Your batsmen looked much better against our spinners than they used to. However, they need to tone down the aggression. Being overaggressive is the main reason most of them lost their wickets. Also, if someone wants to take on Sakib, he got to watch out for arm ball.

Captaincy: Utseya made the job easy for our boys in middle overs by spreading out field, letting them take easy singles. When you have such a small total to defend, you got to be more aggressive. As commentators so often said, he should have brought fielders closer and forced Ashraful and Tamim to hit over them.

Bowling and fielding: IMO, players on field lost their fighting spirits too early. Again it's a captaincy issue. Utseya could have cheer up the boys with encouraging words, could have brought the fielders in to encourage some aggressive bowling.

[Tinashce Ruswa]

Evening like everyone else in this forum was up early doors to watch the game.Interesting indeed on the team composition and it did highlight to an extent that Walter and Roudy (Prosper) had a plan, getting into a game with 3 spinners and a part time bowler, Chibhabha (no offence) to fill quota really begs the question, they Bangla's cant play pace and we just did the opposite open with someone who bowls 120's and has no discipline to keep his line you need to get the strike bowlers in to attack and put their batsmen under pressure they like to play shots so you eliminate that aspect, didn't see Chamu do much of that the way he was bowling,Elty did it a bit to Ashraful when he kept a decent line outside off for a while.

Secondly in the batting after 37 plus encounters against Bangladesh we still look baffled and caught unawares that they will bowl 6 or more slow left arm spinners or bowlers of that sort.One wonders weather any work towards this was done with our batters, i.e video analysis, bowling machine, there is no other way to substitute it, we assumably had over a month to prepare surely in a must win series logic would have prevailed that shows that to prepare you stick your batters in a net get a bowling machine and let them hit it out till they get it right, strike rotation was poor and awareness was nill.

Lastly we need to THINK........I mean the batters(Zimbabwe) we need cricket intelligence, be aware of whats happening and what your objective is, Vermulen was a perfect example of that today, his main concern was rotation of the strike and hitting down the ground with a tidy innings...We need to see more of that from the other lads.

Then again that's my own opinion just that its getting too much of an old scratched record and o me its personal how I take the way they play.

[eugene]

Tinashce, I notice you mention Chibhabha and quotas. Is there still an official or unofficial quota for Zimbabwean international, representative, or domestic teams? I was hoping the days of quotas were over. I have a fear that some radical elements within ZC may point fingers at the number of white players in the team as the reason for the loss.

[brmtaylor.com admin]

Playing Chibhabha as a second seamer was a bad decision. He has an ODI economy of 7.5 for a good reason - he should focus on his batting from now on, at international level anyway.

With the exception of Vermeulen, Taylor and Coventry our batsmen looked very poor. Vermeulen played beautifully and truly deserved a century, he was our standout player for the match. Taylor was comfortable at the crease and the Vermeulen/Taylor partnership was our best, I'm still fuming that the umpire gave him out when he edged the ball into his pad with a 25 yard stride down the pitch

Coventry looks the goods I think, he was probably overly aggressive yesterday but he looked good against the spin and will play an important part in this series.

Our fielding let us down. We pride ourselves on this, and while it wasn't shocking there were a few overthrows which you don't want to see. Thought Taylor was good behind the stumps.

Bowling was beyond ordinary... you know things are bad when Price and Utseya are getting the living daylights belted out of them.

At the time I thought Utseya was making some ordinary bowling changes, having had a while to reflect on this... what could he do? Not one of his bowlers looked like taking a wicket. Chigumbura was half-decent, Cremer looked okay by virtue of the fact that he didn't get hammered like the other spinners. His field settings were strange though, he was allowing easy singles but ultimately the game was gone after the first 5 overs so it mattered little.

For the next game, just the one change I think. Rainsford in for Chibhabha. Williams to bat at number 3.

[outswing]

i think our bowling was shocking, i almost fell off my chair when i saw chibhabha was opening the bowling? I guess our spinners didnt come through as much as we thought they would, although i have every confidence that they will pick their game up...but i strongly believe we need to play our seamers so we can put pressure on from the get go.

hats off to Mark Vermulen- spectacular comeback, on the whole i think our batsmen put in effort, but not enough of it. i think i am just grateful we have come to a point where we have a strong batting line up, our first 7 at least batsmen can get the job done...very different from the days when we had absolutely no middle order...so that is a plus.

i hope we can make it work in the next game, there is no point in having a good team on paper and having them never come to the party!

[Tinashce Ruswa]

Tinashce, I notice you mention Chibhabha and quotas. Is there still an official or unofficial quota for Zimbabwean international, representative, or domestic teams? I was hoping the days of quotas were over. I have a fear that some radical elements within ZC may point fingers at the number of white players in the team as the reason for the loss.

I do not mean quota as in the black and white issue no sir, if you git that implication , I would be guilty of false communication and assummabley you of selective reading, I refferre to the quota of bowlers normally used in a ODI 5 main bowlers and in my eyes Chibhabha was just slotted in to fill in that 5 specialist bowlers.You cannot make a guy who has an average of 7.5 open the bowling when you have guys I.E ADMIRE who are constantly taking wickets not playing, and when was the last time he made runs anyway,we should be realistic and look to play the best 11 we have at any day, don't play names.

[zimfan1]

I have no problem with Chibabha being in the side as i actually rate his batting quite highly, but his role in the side should be to bat in the to order a bowl a couple of fill in overs here and there with the keeper standing up to the stumps. But never should his role be as an opening bowler. We have two international standard opening bowlers in Rainsford and Mupariwa waiting in the wings and they need to play. Otherwise its just to easy for Bangladesh's opening batsman to get settled before the spinners come on.

[Detective RDS]

- Bring back Williams at no 3. He has got a very good average of 30+. He needs some time to get settled in the pitch and build a big innings.

- Justice Chibhabha should be dropped. He looked rather clumsy with the bat. Though he picked up a wicket, he was very very expensive.

- Zimbabwe should play frontline seamers or they will struggle. The Bulawayo pitch doesn't offer much to the spinners. So, I think Cremer will be dropped. Price bowled well firstly but it wasn't his day. Ashraful really attacked him.

- Captaincy of Utseya was poor. It seems that he gave up all the hope. My suggestion is that no matters if you win or loss but always attack the oppornent till the end.

- Poor bowling selection and fielding setup. Going with Chibhabha for too many overs was wrong. Cremer should be called early to bowl.

- Lack of cheer up from the captain. The result was fielding was sloppy. Utseya should follow captains like Warne (Though in T20), Smith or even Shakib, the oppornent captain.

- Poor shot selection from the batsmen. They were over ambitious. They should follow Vermeulen to see how to build an innings.

- Lack of match practise with no recent international playing experience. Bangladesh got the advantage here.