[Match Thread] Zimbabwe v West Indies HSC

I agree with most of jaybro's post above.

With regard to the pitch: It was exactly the sort of pitch the ICC prefers for their televised events: full of runs. It's one of the reasons why we haven't been able to well there against big sides. Yesterday was a sort of action replay #99 from the last ten years, going back to the Price-Prosper-Cremer days: a flat wicket, we put up a decent but not enormous total, we restrict the opposition to an extent but fail to take wickets and they coast home in the end. All our seamers, except for Blessing, need help from the pitch, and as much as I rate Cremer, on a deck like that he's not the force he is when there's a bit of turn on offer. Incidently, yesterday showed why exactly Blessing is such a great asset, and not only for the future, because at his height and pace he will always be dangerous if he has his radar turned on.

Let me be clear, I've always been behind the team. Always. I stayed up till 1:30am to watch the guys and support them. Fickle is when you chop and change, I've never done that.

I've always said that as good as a player he is, Cremer is not a captain. Give anyone the role, they are bound to get some calls right, so yes he gets credit when it works, but in a game like yesterday, he was getting a lot wrong. I see BT and Raza doing more talking and gesturing and being proactive.

Yesterdays loss was hard to take because on reflection, it was really our own errors that cost us, and that is a common theme for us. It is more frustrating because when you consider that, you realise that we have the potential to be a top side, but don't. Granted teams have off days, but how many times can we say that. All those Afghanistan series come to mind.

Yesterday we messed up with:

1) Not picking the extra seamer. You pick a seamer in your world cup squad, have faith in him. Put him on a pitch that will do more for him than a spinner. Crunch games like this are not the time to try and play safe.

2) Losing early wickets, and losing wickets when we shouldn't have. BT saved us, but he needed a calmer head at the end. Could have added on more runs than we had. Hammy was hard done by as was Raza, but Cephas chasing something that wasn't to be chased, Williams getting out to the same trap as the last game, and Craig leaving the bat out there.

3) Not rotating the bowlers properly, and not thinking outside the box. Why not give Hammy the ball, or Mire? Wickets were not falling and nothing was on for the spinners, do something.

4) Fielding. We must have leaked about 20 runs in the field. Jarvis lazily chasing a ball allowing a second. Chisoro letting one through him for four. Other guys fumbling the ball, and the number of easy singles the Windies were allowed to take. Those singles also come down to fielders in the wrong positions. Get your key guys in the key positions. Raza dropping a catch early on. Why are we so quiet in the field also.

5) Why was the field so far back in the end. Windies only needed less than a run a ball and we opened the field for them.

6) Williams in the penultimate over. You keep Blessing and Jarvis for the end, and then you don't even use Jarvis.

7) Constantly bowling in the wrong spots. Williams was always down leg and short. The number of short balls that were in the wrong line were way too many. It was just asking to be punished.

On a side note, I am starting to hate the Windies even more. Did anyone notice Hetmyer giving Blessing the "I can't hear you", or "what? that's what i thought" treatment. We need to show that kind of fire.