Zimbabwe vs India third odi 22nd August 2022

[Kriterion_BD]

Evans is a terrific find. A seam bowling all-rounder would lend so much balance to any side. He could genuinely become a legit all-rounder. Would love to see him in the Test side as well.

Raza, Williams, Evans, Blessing is a solid solid core. But with half of them getting close to retirement, others need to step up. You need another 2 to 4 guys of that level to really start challenging the top teams.

Some very good fight shown by ZIM in this final match. The key though is carrying it forward.

[Googly]

https://youtu.be/52o7qz7Kbj4

Really good interview from Evans.
Finally a guy with complete self awareness, without that you're not improving-
Was asked about his batting and he says he lost his shape, lost his timing and put Raza under a bit of pressure.
Correct to all of those, but still good enough to take us deep. I watched what he did there, firstly he was content to give Raza the strike, then when the run rate crept up a bit he decided he needed to play some bigger shots.
I think he should have backed himself to stroke the ball around a bit earlier and they would have gotten closer.
He gets himself into trouble when he tries to hit the ball in the air, and thats often trying to hit it too hard. When you get up to needing 9's you're still almost OK to keep it on the ground, in my opinion. He gets too low. If you're too low you need to hit the ball squarer and that causes problems.

Anyway he won't forget that game, his coming of age break out game. Let's hope he doesn't come out wearing dreadlocks, gold chains and 20kg heavier like some of his team mates when they think they've arrived
I'm joking- this guy knows where he's at and I hope we see him improve. Get some advice from those openers on how they swing a white ball 30cm and don't get caught doing it

[CholeZimbo]

The team below will most certainly win series against these teams. Bang (H), Ire (H/A), Sco (H/A), SrL (H), WI(H), Afg (H),

Ballance
Shumba
Ervine
Williams
Raza
Chakabva
Burl
Jongwe
Evans
Muzarabani
Ngarava/Nyauchi

[secretzimbo]

People saying only 1 or 2 contributed again. Actually all the bowlers did really well. It was a fine performance with the ball. Plus Raza and Williams with the bat and actually half or more of the team contributed. Restricting them to 289 is the major reason we got so close. Led by Evans, but the bowling as a whole was very good. If we had held those catches they probably wouldn’t have got past 230-ish.

The problems remain with the top order yeah, still some guys look way out of their depth. But it was India!!! Let’s be real.

Let’s see how they do in the first round of the T20WC and against Afghanistan in December.

[TapsC2]

I'm hoping this domestic season Evans bats a bit higher up the order. A lower order of Burl, Jongwe, Evans, Blessing and Ngarava is actually not that bad. What I don't know is if Luke and Brad can genuinely be in the same team together unless one of them becomes much better with the bat. I got a feeling this coming domestic season might be the most competitive we have seen in a long time, especially if they get a few imports in as well.

[sam_ahm]

On a very serious note guys I'm not at all happy with this 'Winning hearts' and 'proud effort' kind of things.

Need to be very serious about end results and keep winning.

I'm not being unrealistic here, I don't have a problem when a team like India or Australia thrash Zimbabwe, it is expected that can happen but when you've got the game under control against this big guns, and Zim had that yesterday with 17 needed off 13 ... You've GOT to seal the win.

No Excuses. As lower ranked nations, they have to make it count when they can make it count, no one tomorrow remembers a losing effort.

[Googly]

Evans is a terrific find. A seam bowling all-rounder would lend so much balance to any side. He could genuinely become a legit all-rounder. Would love to see him in the Test side as well.

Raza, Williams, Evans, Blessing is a solid solid core. But with half of them getting close to retirement, others need to step up. You need another 2 to 4 guys of that level to really start challenging the top teams.

Some very good fight shown by ZIM in this final match. The key though is carrying it forward.

Same story unfortunately-
Two guys having a great game and not a lot from the others. If Kaitano had been wearing a decent set of pads that weren't splayed out at the ankle (like a pad you fish out of a team school trunk) he'd have survived that jaffer. How does an international opener have such a shit pair of pads???
Kaia looks ok. The stats show we've tried more opening combinations with the worst record in world cricket. I think it was 17 combinations with an average of 17.
Opening is so tough and the reality is you need some luck as well. It's always important to rotate strike, but particularly so as an opener. You'll be a rabbit in the headlights for the first 4 overs, but then you need to start working it around and looking for quick singles. Burl needs to bat up the order and needs to lose that wristy short arm pull (my bug bear about his batting, just count the number of times hes been out to that shot.) and he needs to put in some hard yards with his bowling- give him more money and tell him he's got to bowl 10 overs a day. Evans has shown he should be higher up, maybe one ahead of Jongwe. Thats as high as you can push him. A few more decent innings and maybe ahead of Reggie, but that's it in this line-up. I know as a fact he should open with the ball.
If you've got your openers bowling some decent stuff but with a couple of loose deliveries you're letting them off the hook. McGrath ended up bowling 130 at the end of his career and was still effective. I'd really like to see a Muzarabani/Evans combo. Blessing is a handful on a good day, but he should be a lot tighter than he is.
Just one loose delivery undoes all the hard work.

Same story with Reggie- he looks really decent up until the point he goes out cheaply. That magic thing that enables you to go on eludes him.
Williams- Well he looked like he was playing on a different deck, jeez he's a good player. His Achilles is pace (he's not alone ) and he's about to get plenty of that.

Munyonga looked a bit out of his depth. I dont think he's faced that level before so it's understandable. Our domestic level is shit so you're suddenly expected to go up ten notches and it's practically impossible. You'll find guys like Williams and Taylor probably struggled as well early on, but had the luxury of repeated attempts against good opposition.
After Australia it will probably be a while before our batters come under such sustained scrutiny.

[Googly]

The dilemma Houghton faces is what to do with Madhevere and Shumba. Evans should have sealed his spot for the next couple of games. If they keep Jongwe in the line up then that's the back end of the team sorted. I'm sure Burl will go up so the only two spots are 1 and 2. Kaia deserves to be persevered with.
So where do they find space for Madhevere and Shumba?
Do you rotate them as openers? Do you drop Jongwe?
Aussie is seam friendly so perhaps not.
I dunno, just throwing it out there.

Shumba hasn't had any exposure and Madhevere is not firing.

[ZIMDOGGY]

The only negative of Evans success yesterday is now that he is known to Indian fans and did well against them, we are going to hear 'Why not pick the Brad Evan?" from indian fans all over Facebook or here for the next twenty years, if he fizzles out, retires, goes abroad or what not.

We are still getting 'Zimb shold pick Elten Chigmumbra' now and the 'Mrillier is best player he should be picked' only dried up about 2 years back.

[TapsC2]

Munyonga, Wes, Shumba, Marumani, Madande, Kaitano, Kaia, Evans and Chivanga. These 9 guys need a lot of ' A' cricket over the next 18 months against decent opposition. I hope Hami has read this situation. Its good they getting some games against decent sides but this needs to be continued as the domestic level just isn't good enough.

The likes of Wes need to learn how to score hundreds against decent bowling before we see them do it for the senior side. As for Chivanga, he needs to do more with that pace and he doesn't have time on his side unlike Munyonga and co.