Zimbabwe vs India 2022 First One day International

[sam_ahm]

https://twitter.com/kwirirayi/status/15 ... ASrMA&s=19

Muzarabani training.

I doubt if they'll risk playing him in this series, but he might be on the trip to Australia.

[Googly]

Our best chance of winning a single game against Australia or India is winning the toss and having Ngarava and Blessing bowling at India at 9.15am when it's just downright nasty, restricting them to 250 and somehow chasing it down on a flat afternoon pitch.
One win is as much as we can hope for and HSC is the place.

[secretzimbo]

As usual, sounds like really tough conditions batting first today. It’s no big surprise the top order failed, against quality bowling in very difficult conditions. The seam/swing always seems particularly pronounced at this time of year. Also the 9am starts really don’t help - would be a much fairer contest if they started at 11, but it goes dark pretty early in winter. If ZC are serious about this recent effort they are making then they really need to try again to get some lights up at the ground - you can ship temporary ones in just for the big series, there must be some in SA somewhere?

It will be interesting to see us win the toss and bowl first, see if our lads can make some inroads in that first hour. There would be a decent chance of a good game then. The pitches this year have been absolute belters once that early movement goes. Seems like the ground is being well watered, well maintained and cared for by the groundstaff.

[secretzimbo]

Drop Wes and give Shumba a go at 3. Or put Burl at 3/4 and then Munyonga can come in at 7.
Feel very sorry for Marumani, who they have really thrown to the wolves. We know he’s talented and it’s clear he has worked hard on his mindset, but he’s so raw, way more so than Wes or Shumba even. He obviously isn’t ready yet, especially in this format, and especially against arguably the best team in the world. The problem being that Ervine is injured, Kaitano can’t score a run to save his life at the moment, and we seemingly have no other options at the top.

I’ve been saying for the last three years that Kevin Kasuza could have a good carer in the ODI format, but they can’t throw him in now against India when he hasn’t played any cricket for the last three months.

Ervine, Williams, Raza, Chakabva, Burl, Jongwe, Evans in positions 3-9 is pretty solid, certainly against most of the teams we are realistically competing with (e.g. not India/Australia). Plus Ngarava who seems to have learnt how to hold a bat, having previously been one of the worst tailenders ever If we could find 2 decent openers we would have a good lineup. The jury is still out on Kaia despite his excellent innings against Bangladesh, we will see. They probably want Wes or Shumba to open eventually but I think we are years away from that.
Ben Curran needs to hurry and get that passport sorted.

[zimlover]

Last time we had a decent opener post the Rebel crisis was when Hami and Vusi and Mawoyo were opening, even when they did open the middle order would always let us down and fail to finish with a sensible total.

I think for most of our cricketers it’s a Mindset issue, I would say let Shumba and Madhevere open for us going forward and they should continue with them, we need a positive start the middle order is loaded with experience from Williams Raza, Ervine. Burl Chakabva.

The issue that we need immediate attention is the bowling, we have. No idea how to bowl in our own conditions, the Indians
Showed us how to do so.

Everyone in the bowling attack apart from Jongwe have issue hitting Straight Yorkers on a Harare morning pitch.

We need a new bowling coach.

[zimbos_05]

I don't understand how the batting conditions can change so drastically so quickly. They beat us by 10 wickets, which to me speaks a lot of us batting poorly as opposed to the conditions being that great for swing. Says a lot too that our top scorers were our bowlers.

Yes, much better side, but I reckon we went a bit into our shell again and got overawed by the moment. Kaia doesn't impress me as an opener. He always seems to be too cautious.

[sam_ahm]

I don't understand how the batting conditions can change so drastically so quickly. They beat us by 10 wickets, which to me speaks a lot of us batting poorly as opposed to the conditions being that great for swing. Says a lot too that our top scorers were our bowlers.

Yes, much better side, but I reckon we went a bit into our shell again and got overawed by the moment. Kaia doesn't impress me as an opener. He always seems to be too cautious.

I agree, can't put too much on the conditions. Yes, I agree it's tougher batting first, but then again you cannot lose in the manner in which Zimbabwe did.

Bangladesh always had Zim in trouble despite batting first, so did Afghanistan.

[Kriterion_BD]

Bangladesh always had Zim in trouble despite batting first, so did Afghanistan.

Zimbabwe also got smashed in the 3rd ODI vs Bangladesh despite fielding first. The toss is a minor factor, but not as big as its being made out to be IMO.

[Googly]

I'd say most Harare (I don't know Byo, Kwekwe or Mutare) pitches are like this, and it's a real thing. There's definitely way more movement off the pitch in the morning and they definitely flatten out in the afternoon. It's significant, and was really obvious yesterday.
Marshmallow posted those swing stats, which has not a lot to do with the pitch itself. When a swinging ball hits the deck it surely exacerbates the seam movement as well?

Actually were those deviation angles for swing or off the deck? I'm not sure what they're measuring or how?

Does the ball swing more in the cooler, denser morning air?
You'd have so say yes.
Are the Indian seamers more adept at swing? Again it's a yes, we haven't really had a bowler that really hoops it for a while. Diplock is the most recent bowler that really gets it to go, but he never even played a franchise game. There's a guy who was treated poorly.

The telling will be if we win a toss. In a 3 match series on a pitch that changes so significantly a fairer way would surely be each team gets one choice ea and you toss for the last game. Of course if we won 3 tosses in a row I'd be OK with that as well.

[Googly]

There must be people who understand clay pitches. Clay is different all around the world, and it definitely ages differently. Those HSC decks were first laid a long time ago. Someone like DH would be able to tell you if they now behave differently.