Zimbabwe

[khw]

An away series in Sri Lanka resulted in two heavy defeats. Any progress we made a season or two ago has been significantly blunted. Sri Lanka might be on paper at least, one of the softer away tours, but we were well and truly crushed.

The first test saw us shake the bowling attack up a little, following the tepidness of recent displays. Madziva and Waller were retained, whilst Vitori was brought in to offer the pace. Munyede and Ndlovu provided spin options. Sri Lanka won the toss and batted first, and started with two huge partnerships for the first two wickets. From 295-1 we did remarkably well to bowl them out for 435. Munyede took a debut Michelle.

In reply, we lost Kunje and Burl early and although Musakanda, Williams and Richardson made decent contributions, the late order/tail had no response to Sri Lanka's spinners. Still, given their collapse, we could hardly complain about how we lost wickets.

The Sri Lankan top three, buoyed by their first innings lead, accelerated the scoring but our spinners were able to apply the brakes. Still, contributions here and there allowed them to reach 310, to seemingly put us out of the game. Munyede finished with nine wickets in the match on debut, so that was a plus.

And so it proved. We were reduced to 15-3 in the blink of an eye as Chameera and Ferdnando, the Sri Lankan pace duo, scythed through our top order. Musakanda top scored with a brave fifty and the middle order made middling scores without being able to kick on. The spinners finished us off for 213, culminating in a massive 267 run.

[khw]

The second test was even more one sided. We made one change, Vitori being left out for Mumba, rectifying a poor selection decision from the last test. Otherwise, we were unchanged.

We won the toss and batted. Kunje was removed in the first over, and Burl only just made it into double figures before becoming one of Sandakan's five wickets. Williams, Richardson and Moor seized the initiative back, and what's more scored quickly. Richardson was unfortunately caught behind on 95, a cruel way to miss out on your first century. Madziva just missed out on a fifty himself, and a final score of 372 looked pretty reasonable on paper.

Or so we thought. Sri Lanka absolutely murdered a below par bowling performance. They batted for 121 overs, reaching 512-1d!!!! Tharanga made 112 before edging the left arm spin of Munyede behind to Moor but otherwise the 'keeper Samarawickrama making a career best 266no, supported by Mendis, who made an unbeaten ton of his own. In fact, the only surprise was that they declared so early. At the rate they were batting, they could've gone on for another day or more and could have challenged world record territory.

Maybe Mathews knew something we didn't. Our top six all made starts and reached double figures but only Kunje and Richardson made fifties, although they lost their wickets almost as soon as they reached these milestones. The late order knew the jig was up and made little impact - the Sri Lankan spinners sensed a chance for some cheap wickets and took it with both hands.

Sri Lanka had 107 to chase and we took more wickets here than we did in the entire first innings. An eight wicket victory flattered us though.

[khw]

Series averages now - Richardson, Madziva, Williams and Munyede can hold their heads high, that's it really.

An away series to Bangladesh next. A chance for redemption perhaps?



In terms of rankings, Musakanda is our top ranked batsman at 26 (Williams a place behind), Madziva is our top ranked bowler (35).