Is there still justification in any hope?

[hhm]

If McCullum hadn't attempted that utterly disrespectful cheeky shot we would've been facing a futile chase of 220+ for sure! Pathetic all round showing from the guys. It's a good thing Utseya bats at nine. That way he can run out just two of our guys instead of ten! Not even positive plays from Chibhabha and Elton will do anything to soothe the loss. They still owe us big time and it will take much much more over a long long time to move the balance into credit. Waller continues to be pathetic while appearing competent. Mutizwa might have some here fooled, but not me. All that's left for Coventry now is to hope he can still break into the Tuskers side let alone habour any intentions of ever donning the red. Considering the selectors unsurprisingly took him while still undercooked, he might have a remotely plausible excuse for clemency. Taylor did the usual - decent followed by horrible. Unlike the previous Bangladesh tour, one hopes it's just one horrible outing instead of three consecutive ones! Hami seems to be doing everything in his power to convince the selected never to disturb him again from his favorite level of FC cricket with the underlings. Mpofu underlined why I said if we are to be competitive we need to unearth better. Jarvis certainly hasn't done enough to convince me that we have.

The ease with which their batsman flayed our bowlers might make them overconfident and adopt a T20 style batting approach when they play against us in the ODIs. My only concern is, in that event, we lack the intelligence and ability to take advantage of that mindset. I forsee a whitewash. Pakistan might have achieved the same against us, but NZ might just be more brutal and clinical. At least Pakistan contributed towards our limited success with dropped catches. There've been little signs of the Black Caps being that generous!

Bangladesh made us look good; in hammering us Pakistan somehow managed to make us appear competitive; NZ on the other hand may just annihilate us. Just like Pakistan they have the bowling attack which gives the impression that we might have a chance. But again just like matchup against Pakistan we lack the batting order which can can exploit that. Will Nathan prove be NZ's Ajmal against us? It looks dangerously ominous!!!

The success or failure of the rest of this tour now depends solely on the hands of the selectors. Matsi anyone?

Solution
Woodcock, Ryder and Nathan wouldn't wouldn't look that much out of place in the All-Black front row at Eden Park this Sunday. Unless of course a Valuev vs Alfonso Zvenyika bout can be sanctioned in this part of the world, we should perhaps look to the Sables to even things up for the rest of this tour!

[lloydwinini]

so basically we're screwed! right?

[eugene]

I think many Zimbabwean cricket fans make the mistake of thinking NZ really isn't that far ahead in talent and productivity. New Zealand has consistently explosive batsmen in the form of McCullum, Ryder, and Guptill. New Zealand has Daniel Vettori - cricket's best allrounder (spinning allrounders do exist!). New Zealand has some very talented up and coming fast bowlers. Also, if you want to see what a good fielding team is watch New Zealand, you will then see how far behind Zimbabwe's fielding is.

[ZIMDOGGY]

new zealand generally take a pretty ballsymindset totheir limited overs cricket.

They also seem to have us figured out. to date,mccullum always kills us.

they are the only team thats realised price isnt that hard to belt.


only 2 teams make me scared on the field playing zim.


Safrica and new zealand. They skullf*ck us everytime.

[ZIMDOGGY]

one more thing.


has anyone noticed just how much of a headcase we are?

we need a shrink.

we put on an awesome score of 154 that could have been in the 160s. if we werent chasing such a large score we would never have got 154.


The case with zimbabwe is ifthe team are chasing 90, they will get 80. if we are chasing 190, we get close. we have a serious mindset problem, we have a team of scared sissies. coventry isnt a sissy....but hes a crap player to be honest.


Butcher.....time to call Dr Phil.

[andybligz93]

hhm i agree with you 100percent ! this is getting so annoying how inconsistent we are and how much players are overrated. i dont agree with you on jarvis though , i think since coming back from injury he has been wonderful and the only zim bowler to consitenly pitch the ball up at decent pace.it has taken chigz nearly 2 years to get a modest score of 30 plus ! i love the guy and always pick him in my team but surely meth needs a long run now he has earnt his striped domestically and has come back strong from such a sickening injury therefor showing heart and determination , something zim needs badly at the moment ! coventry is rubbish i have said this for so long , he is useless and a waste of talent get over him people , he will be remember for one innings. in this t20 side its time to chuck the youngsters in the deep end and give the likes of raza , mushangwe , nathan waller ect a go surely they wont do anyworse than what the current team is. ray price should be rested and utseya is terribly out of form like the rest of the team. i would still like to praise chibabaha and jarvis for there contributions there the only ones worthy of it.

[Flower power]

I dont think the technical team are analysing the game as we are doing , or they are and its the players that are just failing to apply themselves .
Do we plan for our games , or our players are not technically competent to execute plans .


Scenario 1

At Practice
Heath Streak : Chris & Kyle do not ball length balls to MacCullum because from what I saw he showed tremendous bat speed, clipping and pulling you guys over square leg and was perfectly at ease, making room and lofting you inside out over the covers. He is an aggressive batsman who is particularly strong over extra cover, often lofting the ball into the stands
Chris & Kyle : But we cant ball yoker lengths all the time
Heath Streak : Thats were variations come into play ,start the over by surprising him with a bouncer , then second ball give him a slower one , third one in the block hole, fourth one away from him , fifth one into his pads and sixth one you can figure out that.
Chris & Kyle : But we have been trying our best , we had two clear lbw's , and in the field we let him off on a couple of run outs .
Chris & Kyle : We will try to do that (and they go off to the nets and have huge success dazzling Hammy and Chamu with their new found knowledge
Heath Streak : I have dug out a couple of footage of MacCullum & Guptil , so boys go and watch them carefully .
Go and watch footage ,

Matchday

BT :Chris do you want to open the bowling
Chris : Ohhh no give it to Kyle
BT: Ok I will give the new ball to Kyle
Kyle : Eish maybe give it to Pricey
BT : Ray do yu want the new ball
Ray : Absolutely
Ray : Takes the new ball and confidently bowls the first over and goes for 3 runs and claims the scalp of Guptil .
Chris & Kyle ( Nw fighting for the second bowler spot )
BT : I am nt giving it to either of yu . Prosper cum here u are bowling second
Prosper : Sure and he gets a maiden
Chris & Kyle Looking at each other ) That was easy .
BT : After 4 overs and gives Jarvis the ball to Jarvis as 1st change .
Kyle : take the ball and confidently bowls 5 beauties and then strays on the last ball and is smashed for 6 .
Chris : Bowls and brings a mix of deliveries and goes for 11 .
BT : Talks to the boys , guys you need to have confidence here . Did you see how the Aussies undid him in that video you watched
Kyle : Nodding yah yah
BT : We are going to trap him in this over so I need you to invite him to hit into the covers . We are going to put a man down there during the middle of the over .
Kyle : (Bowls in the next over , and goes according to plan . ) Jarvis is delighted gets his man .
Heath Streak ; In the stands telling Butcher . "I told him the plan would work"

[hhm]

i dont agree with you on jarvis though , i think since coming back from injury he has been wonderful and the only zim bowler to consitenly pitch the ball up at decent pace.

It's a pity that while a country such as Aus are throwing in 18yr olds like Cummins who make the world's best batsmen jump all over the crease, and have the luxury to leave out the equally capable Pattinson, we hope to conquer the world through our new found talent in Jarvis who comes nowhere near these boys who are 2-4 years his junior.

In many isolated comments I've heaped plenty of praises on Jarvis. Unfortunately many times more I've talked him down as well. What cannot be argued is that per over he bowls a couple of bowls at decent pace which outfox or trouble quality batsman. And through that we can see signs that he has the makings of a quality bowler. My argument is that he cannot bowl enough successive overs or a spell where you can have the confidence that he has the better of quality batsmen. They can tear him to shreds at will. He poses no significant threat as far as their concerned, which is why he will continue to be dominated. We will play a lot of Tests at home, and have only two venues we use. He needs to spend more time in FC cricket playing at these venues and bowling against batsmen in competitive games as opposed to bowling in the nets against Chakabva and Mutizwa etc. That way he will be able to learn at his own pace how to bowl a perfect 6-ball over in sustained spells, and at the same time master our wickets. Apart from the odd domestic game, he spends more time in the nets during camp and only test drives the wickets of our venues when Zim play international cricket. In which case he's being shown to all corners of the ground in the process being frustrated and demotivated. It will be an endless cycle. He cannot go from being smacked by Hafeez(not even Younis Khan) to MaCullum to Gayle and back & forth, then suddenly when Zim get the odd game against SL at Queens we expect him to suddenly show improvement and be able to tie down Dilshan and Sanga! We don't gett 3 Test series or multiple 5 ODI series where he can hit a miss in one or two games and come right in the others. He bowls against those batsmen once and they get on top of him. Which they back themselves and will look to repeat the next time.

Steyn got hammered took a break, sorted himself out in FC cricket , and when he came back he never turned back. Jarvis got hammered, came back, got hammered and is still getting hammered. In our return series to NZ, he will still be getting hammered by those batsmen, as will be the case when we face WI etc! Most people's argument is that it's beeter he learns the hardway at the top level beacues it beats not being exposed to that level. My question is at what point and under what conditions do you expect him to show irrefutable signs of sustainable progress?

He's not exactly taking 5WIs and 10WM, so what's to prevent other guys who are achieving that to suddenly says 'hey when he plays in the local setup alongside us we do better than him, and it's not like he's setting the world alight in international cricket, we demand our chance as well!' Can you argue against the likes of Meth and Njabulo Ncube when they say so? Even if they have average returns they will demand to be given just as long a run as Jarvis/Vitori was given before they are dropped(Same applies to Craig/Mawoyo/Waller/Mutizwa). A lot of this could have been avoided had we stuck to our senior tried and tested players upfront and then depending on their performance, one young player at a time we gradually introduced new blood until a new team was formed! Now the selectors have put themselves in a difficult spot and it will be very hard to ignore the stats of the likes of Matsi, Ewing, Panyangara, Ncube etc if they keep performing. if only Mpofu gets dropped for Meth/Panyangara, then questions will be asked of Jarvis or vice versa. That's what's happening at the moment. We're creating a vicious cycle.

they are and its the players that are just failing to apply themselves. Do we plan for our games , or our players are not technically competent to execute plans.

Very interesting . International bowlers should not be subjected to such mundane tutoring Flower power. The discussions are more high level than that. Bowlers at that standard are expected to have the tools and ability to execute. Limited effort should be directed at refining their action, building pace and fine tuning their variations. What takes place is that as a team they review the strengths and weaknesses of the batsman, assess the conditions of the pitch, form a cohesive plan and apply it. After that the bowler should know exactly what he needs to do to get a specific batsman out, what type of field he will bowl to, and hopefully do just that. A large part of the contest won before the match begins. Right now it looks like our bowlers simply know how to bowl and that's about it. No class or direction!

[Flower power]

At hhm

What is your assessment of the First T20 , where we failed to clinch even a single wicket . I disagree when we say our bowlers know how to bowl . (They where whipped around the field , and are still going to be whipped around the ground if they don't make a plan . If they are following a plan , which seems to have not worked then they have to sit down again . I feel its now also a lack of confidence that befalls these young bowlers when they face these two openers again . Its like when they are starting to bowl its a I hope we are lucky this time , no we can better you mentally .
If i was around these players i would maybe try to give them a positive outlook ,(does Zim even have a Psychologist in its set up )
We are loosing the mental battles . So we need to do something about it .
I am not saying Jarvis is not up to standard , or Mpofu or any of the Zim guys , but am trying to find the root cause of what is going on at the moment .

[foreignfield]

A lot of this could have been avoided had we stuck to our senior tried and tested players upfront

You mean the same tried and tested seam attack that got continually hammered by all comers so that we finally ended up with a spin-heavy attack and Mpofu as the only first choice seamer (Rainsford was ever only in and out of the team due to injuries)? So, basically, we stuck to our tried and tested seamer - Mpofu - and added two young ones. And I don't recall that Chris has outbowled those two very often this home season.