Zimbabwe won by 4 wickets chasing down 360 after the MCC declared. M.Campbell 135, Mupfudza 76 not out.
Funny thing is that neither players has scored many runs for their clubs at all this season.
Matty averages a tad under 36 with the bat for Leek in a good quality midlands league.
He also averages under 20 with the ball.
In English conditions, id be really happy with those numbers.
Leek play in the North Staffordshire and South Cheshire Prem. The standard is high and there's some very tidy seam bowlers in that league who can get good players out. 36 is a very decent average on a green seamer most weeks
Well the players have arrived. It's just a guess, but I think what may have happened is that Houghton has assessed them all and realised the scheduled games are too tough for most of the players.
Maybe he's looking to re-jig things against lesser teams?
When I saw they were supposed to be playing Durham Ones I just shook my head.
Apparently on day 1 they had a net session where they had to face some big swing in one net off a machine, some steep bounce and turn off a Merlin in another and something else in a third net and 90% of the guys were at sea. The Chigumbura Academy guys would have managed.
We've seen what caliber of player you need to play County Ones. The lack of organisation and forethought is absolutely astonishing.
The most obvious guys that should be on this tour are guys like
Vezha, Macheka, Chitaira, Evans, Campbellx2, Frostx2,
Kamwemba, Melch, Bawa, Taruvinga, Maru, Kamunhukamwe,
Myers,
I mean guys that can actually really play.
Some of the guys just dont have a snowball's chance in hell of emerging.
We've got a tiny pool of decent players and they need to get all the exposure. There's some sort of breakdown when Houghton doesnt have a say in who's coming. I mean his name is on this exercise, and its a big name. He's not going to like being the coach/caretaker of some rag tag side that gets destroyed by all and sundry. Its a bit weird that he let it get this far.