[Match Thread] 3rd Test: Zim vs Bang at Chittagong

[brmtaylor.com admin]

Well done to BD, Zim were outplayed.

I guess Zim can take pride in the fact that they weren't annihilated and there were moments all throughout the series where both teams were in with a shout. But in the end BD batted better and bowled better and no team will lose a series when they've got those two facets of the game covered.

Chakabva was the highlight of the series IMO. It's a shame we don't have any more Tests coming up soon because he's exceeded all expectations and it'd be good to see some more of him.

[jaybro]

3-0 is a disaster people will argue it could have been worse but I still fell this is a terrible result, as a team I feel there were too many passengers only Raza, Hami, Regis and Tinashe performed well. Chigs did well at times and Chatara tried hard without success but really BRMT, Ervine, Mushangwe and Chari never really delivered anything, thenohrer guys who only got one game can't really be blamed but I guess if they played better they would have played more then 1 game !!!

Selection again killed us Nyumbu needed to play again and I still feel Kamungozi bowled better then M'shangwe who I feel hasn't improved at all since breaking into the team on that windies tour, I really thought he was a player of the future ( still maybe ). Chari not ready for international cricket although there is potential I still feel Mawoyo would have done better.

Williams obviously would have made a massive difference as would have Utseya but both were in available .....

BRMT really has to sort out his away form I feel if he had a good series things would have been different another 50 runs in the first test we probably win and he failed 4 times on flat decks after that which really hurt us, when BRMT plays well Zimbabwe plays well he and SM must shoulder most of the blame ....

On a positive note finally Hami realised his potential scoring consistentally throughout a series not just one big innings. Raza is getting better all the time and seems to be converting those 30's & 40's in to half century's now he just has to turn them into 100's. Tinashe bowled so well always taking wickets in conditions that didn't suit he is definitely the leader of the attack now and Regis has come of age finally delivering on his potential he now seems a lock for our middle order .....

[foreignfield]

Disappointing end to a disappointing series.

[eugene]

This is the one of the worst test series we have ever had. Losing 3-0 to the bottom ranked team is unforgivable.

[brmtaylor.com admin]

It's not good, but I think losing a Test to BD in Harare last year was worse.

[Dr_Situ(ZimFanatic)]

This is the one of the worst test series we have ever had. Losing 3-0 to the bottom ranked team is unforgivable.

Disappointed with the series loss against Bangla as a 'Zimbabwe' team can never loose a test series against them even in Bangla. The team which lost was 'Mangogo's XI'. Pick up a Zimbabwean team on merit and they will not loose to Bangla even in Bangla. Our good test record has been spoiled by a joker (I wont even call him a Coach as a coach guides and not destroy careers as well as a Nation's image).

[Kriterion_BD]

This is the one of the worst test series we have ever had. Losing 3-0 to the bottom ranked team is unforgivable.

Disappointed with the series loss against Bangla as a 'Zimbabwe' team can never loose a test series against them even in Bangla. The team which lost was 'Mangogo's XI'. Pick up a Zimbabwean team on merit and they will not loose to Bangla even in Bangla. Our good test record has been spoiled by a joker (I wont even call him a Coach as a coach guides and not destroy careers as well as a Nation's image).

Lol, seems you haven't been compliant with your rispiradone prescription, doc!

Only one player was missing in my humble opinion, and that was Sean Williams. He would have been handy indeed. However, given the margins in the last two tests, 160+ and 180+ runs (250 ish considering we declared just 5 down). Even a world class player would not have covered that. Its like saying we would have won the Harare test in 2013 if Tamim played and Shakib bowled. No way...we lost by 335 runs...even 2 players wouldn't have covered that margin. And Sean Williams isn't even close to their level of class.

You wanted Mawoyo, but he couldn't score against the A team just before this series. Chari outperformed him and you saw what that amounted to.

Proper has been banned for chucking, and he was reviled on this very forum until a couple of months ago. He just had a couple good outings against teams woeful against spin on square turners. If we had Gazi, he could have taken a hat trick and hundred in the same match like he did against NZ. Just sayin...

Don't forget that if 'Bangladesh' had played, you'd have been facing 90 mph scorchers from Taskin. Even the likes Pujara, Rahane, Rayudu couldn't handle him in our conditions.

We threw away home field advantage in Dhaka by giving you a seam friendly surface that negated the spin friendliness. We even lost the toss and had to bat last. But thats no excuse if we had lost. Unsurprisingly that was a close game.

Khulna and Chittagong were flat tracks that got a bit tough to bat on at the end. Even then Chittagong was pretty flat even on day 5. Khulna was a bit trickier with balls keeping low. Flat tracks we won big.

If you can accept the reality that Zim did well - or conversely BD have done poorly - just by hanging around, such results wont be as shocking. I mean we have 160 million people who go ape shit over the game, Zim has no interest, no money, and all that. We have single neighborhoods in Dhaka with more cricket players than the entire country of Zim. We should be beating you inside an a day!

You haven't seen Bangla yet, doc. We are young and still developing. In a few years Zim will do well to compete with us even in Harare!

[jaybro]

Williams and Utseya and even Mawoyo would have made a difference possibly enough to win the first test and maybe draw another ....

As previously stated loosing Gazi was a blessing in disguise if u ask me as it opened the door for Taijul and Jubair ......

But BD have won and you cant take anything away from them Zimbabwe must improve ....

There really aren't many teams who can play in foreign conditions and win these days, so I'm still of the opinion a 3 test series in Zimbabwe would be at least 2-1 Zimbabwe if not 3-0 .....

[Kriterion_BD]

Williams and Utseya and even Mawoyo would have made a difference possibly enough to win the first test and maybe draw another ....

As previously stated loosing Gazi was a blessing in disguise if u ask me as it opened the door for Taijul and Jubair ......

But BD have won and you cant take anything away from them Zimbabwe must improve ....

There really aren't many teams who can play in foreign conditions and win these days, so I'm still of the opinion a 3 test series in Zimbabwe would be at least 2-1 Zimbabwe if not 3-0 .....

A few points, the gist of which I've already mentioned a few times over the past couple weeks...

1) 2-1 to ZIM in ZIM is very possible. That is the current record if our two recent tours are combined as one. That being said, how many matches can you avoid playing in Bulawayo? I'm not even sure if its possible to play 3 consecutive tests on the same venue as wear and tear will be pretty bad if the square doesn't have time to recover even if 3 different strips are used, the square remains the same. Maybe the ICC has a regulation on that. Its even possible the umps could call a game off for a dangerous pitch or whatever. At any rate, I also think 2-1 to BD is entirely possible if we won at Bulawayo, and snagged one in Harare like we did last year. We didn't just scrape by by 50 or 60 runs, we won comfortable at Harare by 140+. So I'd say, 50-50 the chances in ZIM based on current squads, depending on the distribution of venues. If all matches are at HSC, sure ZIM have the upper hand. However, on a absolute greentop our seamers would come into play as well - remember, Robiul was MoS last time ahead of guys like Jarvis. Just like on a raging turner in BD, Raza would be just as lethal as Shakib or even Murali for that matter. If everyone is jumping on a trampoline, you and I could jump as high as Michael Jordan. Now, we get Taskin in the side, and that alone would probably equalize the pace stocks due to the fact that he would bring accuracy + genuine 90 mph pace.

2) True, Gazi the bowler is not as good as Taijul or Jubair even. But a) he's adequate against ZIM in our backyard and b) his batting average is higher than both Williams and Utseya. Now of course I'm not saying Gazi > Williams as a bat, but he's better than both with the ball, and way better than Utseya with the bat. Remember, Gazi's century didn't come against Kenya or Nepal or Ireland, but against NZ. Willy has been around for a while and still doesn't have an international century in any format. He may be talented, but its gotta be backed up. At 27, its unlikely Willy will turn his game around substantially. So if the ICC hadn't banned them and Gazi and Utseya played, that would still be advantage to BD on both bowling, and batting. Taijul and Jubair are both genuine tailenders.

3) Mawoyo. He was dropped due to not performing on the A team tour. That was just a couple weeks before the senioir tour and so it was basically an audition. Chari didn't just perform, he performed head and shoulders ahead of Mawoyo. To me that is fair. Mawoyo's big innings against PAK is now 3 years ago...surely past laurels can't warrant guaranteed job security. Its hypocritical to say "Chari shouldn't have been picked cuz he failed at FC level," and follow that with "Mawoyo should have been picked even though he failed at A team FC level." Mawoyo hasn't played much cricket lately to boot. Its true Chari may not have warranted a call up, but Mawoyo didn't put his hand up either. What if Chari had excelled? What then? Highly unlikely, but it has happened before.

There is a tendency here of the grass always being greener on teh other side. Possibly a result of what ZIM once was and what they've been since the rebels left in 2004. Understandable, totally. But not necessarily correct. There were calls for Vermeulen making this squad. Seriously? The guy would have gotten eaten up by our spinners. Might as well bring back Trevor Gripper or Piet Rinke using that logic.

4) What would a ideal XI look like than?

Raza
Mawoyo
Hammy
Taylor
Williams
Ervne
Chakabva +
Elton/Shingi/Nyumbu/Mushangwe
Utseya
Panny
Chatara

I agree the first test could have gone either way, but that would have happened regardless of who was picked for either side given the conditions negated BD's home field advantage.

As a whole in this series, it wasn't that ZIM were beaten by unplayable bowling (thought it was pretty decent) or raging turners (2/3 tests on flat belters). It was that despite batting 8 batters in some innings, ZIM, couldn't get more than any 2 batsman to fire at the same time. The bowling wasn't unplayable, but it was good enough to a) create enough chances so that some of them stuck, sooner rather than later (the key to Test match bowling attacks) and b) create enough pressure, usually via the scoreboard, that even mediocre deliveries got key wickets. These tactics would NOT have worked against India's batsmen.

Raza, Elton, and even Hammy all got out at key moments despite having scored decent runs and that is what cost ZIM the chance to draw the last 2 tests. Williams is just as prone to throwing it away after getting set. Thats evidenced by a guy of his talent and natural ability not having scored any hundreds in any format of the game, despite being around the block for a while now. 70+ innings and 7-8 years, he can't say he's inexperienced.

With the last 2 tests going late into day 5, its true ZIM could have possibly snatched a couple of draws with a few players subbed. But then again, BD could argue we could have won the 2013 HSC test if we had Tamim, Mominul, and Shakib as a bowler and won that series 2-0! But in Khulna, BD could have easily declared 10, 15, or even 20 overs earlier. ZIM barely lasted 50 overs, would the addition of Willy and Tino allow them to stretch their innings by almost double? I HIGHLY doubt that. Again, you're free to feel differently, but that is not empirically supported by existing evidence. I'm all about evidence based predictions. In the CTG test, we didn't have to declare with a lead of 450...we could have declared a session earlier and no way any team would be able to bat nearly 150 overs to draw.

The margins of 160, and 180 odd runs (equal to 250ish since we declared only 5 down) means that Bangladesh dominated both matches and the addition of 1, 2, or even 3 players is HIGHLY unlikely to changed that outcome, esp in foreign conditions.

We lost the HSC test in 2013 by 335 runs (more like 370+ since ZIM declared only 7 down). Even if we had Tamim, Mominul, and Shakib the bowler - three truly world class players - we still would have lost and lost BIG.

I will post some other thoughts in a seperate thread, but good discussion!

[Jemisi]

The addition of Williams would at best have made it 2-1. You are right about our batting Kriterion.

The weakest part of the team was the frontline spinner, aside from the Chari/Vusi opening slot. That is where we couldn't compete and we allowed massive scoreboard pressure and total control of the last two games.