[Match Thread] Zimbabwe v New Zealand: 1st Test

[chappie coventry]

Well done Sean Williams what a classy knock! Him and ervine are so valuable to zim! Only 2 world class players we have.

[saifulsohel05]

Welldone sean. Love from BD.

ur from bangla cricket, right, nice to see you here

IMO, sean can easily get a chance playing for ENG. PURE control

yes, I am in bd cricket too. Was later part a sarcasm?

[jaybro]

Williams scores the quickest test century by a Zimbabwean ( 106 balls ) batting number 8. He really does things his own way doesn't he .....

Our Run Rate is over 4, guess we might as well go down swinging .....

[clikcspeed]

Going good. Next milestone:
300 runs,
50 run partnership,
40 runs (gets deficit under 100)
tea in 1 hour

[Jemisi]

Well done Williams. Class shows through.

[Tom91]

Well played Willo bit of respectability after a horror show in the first 3 days.

[brmtaylor.com admin]

Well that was, except for the last couple of hours, a really disappointing match.

Changes for the next Test:

1. T Mawoyo
2. S Raza
3. H Masakadza
4. S Williams
5. C Ervine
6. C Chibhabha
7. R Chakabva
8. G Cremer
9. D Tiripano
10. B Vitori
11. J Nyumbu

Chari is not Test quality. I think the question we have to ask of any batsman is "Can he make a century?" and with Chari it's a resounding "no". Maybe that will change after he's played 20 or 30 ODI's. So Mawoyo comes back in, and we know he's capable of grinding out a big innings. I'd also swap Raza and Chibhabha's positions.

I'd persist with Chakabva if he's fit. Moor has overtaken Mutumbami in the keeping pecking order, but I'm not convinced Moor is ready for Tests yet.

Chinouya toiled away but was disappointing. A front line seamer bowling 112-ish is not good enough. H Masakadza can bowl faster than that. He was completely unthreatening. Irrespective of form or position in the squad or whatever, I'd send out a search party for Brian Vitori. It frustrates me when the commentators pretend guys like Chinouya or Tiripano can swing the ball ("is there a hint of reverse there?", "it looks like he's getting a bit of movement", etc)... if those guys are getting swing it's an accident. Whereas a guy like Brian Vitori can actually get the ball to swing, and even though his pace drops through the course of a Test you know that when he's on he can hit the high 130's. He provides variation that we desperately need from our seamers... Chinouya/Tiripano/Masvaure/Chibhabha are basically all the same. Slow and predictable and unthreatening. Get Vitori back.

Tiripano wasn't great with the ball either. But he showed some ticker with the bat which I like. And there's no bowlers to replace him anyway.

Masvaure showed some promise with the bat and was unlucky with his dismissals, but I'd omit him before Chibhabha to make way for a second spinner. I guess Williams was probably expected to get through a lot of overs, but given how toothless our seamers are I'd bank on spin in the 2nd Test and bring Nyumbu in.

[Detective RDS]

My team for 2nd test:

1. Tinotenda Mawoyo/Malcolm Waller (If Mawoyo is unfit, I'll bat Waller at 6 & promote Masvaure to open)
2. Sikander Raza
3. Hamilton Masakadza
4. Sean Williams
5. Craig Ervine
6. Regis Chakabva (WK)
7. Prince Masvaure
8. Graeme Cremer
9. Donald Tiripano
10. Gerald Aliseni
11. John Nyumbu/Wellington Masakadza

[zimbofan88]

Here is my xi for the next match:

Mawoyo
Raza
Hami
Craig
Williams
Masvaure
PJ
Cremer
Shingi
Tiripano
Mpofu

[foreignfield]

I would love to be proven wrong by Sean Williams, though.

Hats off to him. I missed all of today's play, but it sounds like a hell of a gutsy innings, albeit with nothing to loose really. Apart from that I see we've got even more of the wrong stick by the umpires. Ervine and Cremer must bring up the count to at least four, or was it five ?

Kudos also to Cremer for what sounds like an unbelievably brave innings.