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Originally posted by Clifford
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I'm loving it. Great to see someone else likes to support underdogs. My favourite team is Australia, but I love to see Ireland, Zimbabwe and the like perform well. It'd be a pleasant surprise if Zimbabwe managed to win a few games against Bangladesh/NZ. Though it's conflicting interests cos I like Bangladesh too. :P -
Loving this story! It's the best one up at the moment! Keep up the good work! (Also - go the Bangas!
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I don't know precisely although the top 3 of masakadza, taylor and taibu pick themselves. Also i would strongly recommend picking chigumbura, rainsford and price. Cremer has so far showed himself to be very good in this years game and ervine and williams are definately worth a go, as is raza. Meth has done well but i would also try chatara or mpofu in the pace attack. Hope that helps!Originally posted by nilet View PostComment
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Shingi Masakadza's worth a punt also, took wickets for me.Comment
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Ok, the 2nd ODI, i was expecting b'desh to get their act together here! I obviously picked an unchanged side, although the pitch had a bit less in it for the bowlers. we lost the toss and had to bowl first. Here are the teams:
B'desh innings
Yet again, and to my delight, iqbal fell early, his poor form really was boosting my chances! Rainsford got him lbw (anyone else noticed how frequent lbws seem to be!) for 8 and the score was 10/1. However there was no repeat of the earlier collapse as they recovered to 45/1 after 10 overs. The respite didn't last long though, in the 11th over Mahmudullah was yet another lbw victim of rainsford and in the next over Islam was caught by taibu off meth's bowling. In the 15th over nafees was clean bowled by chigumbura for 34, trying to pull a full, straight delivery and b'desh were rocking on 65/4. Once again there was only a breif interlude before the next wicket fell, Reza being caught in the slips for 12 off price. With the score on 89/5, 21 overs in, the last thing i expected was agression from the bangladeshi lower order but agression is what i got! I began to worry as both Al hasan and ashraful resisted for over 15 overs. The big breakthrough finally came in the 38th over when the 80 run partnership was broken as ashraful popped up an easy caught and bowled chance to cremer. He went for 38 and the score was 169/6. In the very next over a moment of madness saw al hasan get himself run out for 53, taking a single that was never there. From 172/7, the tail was swiflty dismissed by cremer leaving b'desh with a very disappointing total of 185 all out. Very achiveable on this pitch...Comment
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Chinyengere, Ervine and Williams were the best batsmen against my NZ side.Originally posted by nilet View PostComment
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Zim innings
We needed 186 @ a rate of 3.7 an over.I decided to aim for a 10 wicket win and bat defensivly in order to get my openers, particulary taylor, into some kind of form. Because of the defensive approach, after 10 overs we were 22/0 with 1 boundary so far. In the 14th over we lost masakadza as he edged a backward defense off Hossain into the slip cordan, he had made jsut 15. 29/1 and we could be vulnerable however taibu dismissed any doubts by hammering a 4 off his first ball. At the 20 over mark we were 46/1, the RRR was 4.6 per over. Taylor finally began to hit boundaries after he had got set, even so we reached 30 overs with only 87/1 on the board, the required rate creeping up to 4.9. Taylor reached his 50 in the 32nd over from 104 balls! In the 35th over taibu departed for 43 and we were 125/2. I took the batting powerplay in the 42nd over, taylor was 79 not out, ervine still only had 4 to his name. we weren't worrying, only 39 were needed @ 4.8. The next over we bagan worrying as taylor was cleaned bowled by pacer hossain for 83. soon after, williams was caught close for 5 and 2 balls later raza was bowled for 2, both wickets going to haque. All of a sudden the required run rate shot up to 17 an over! had we really thrown away an easy win by not batting aggressivly enough! Fortunatley ervine had been in for about 10 overs (although he hadn't scored any runs) and just saw us home, with 3 balls to spare, finishing on 25 not out. A 5 wicket win, which shouldn't have been so close, but we were 2-0 up in the series.Comment
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Now for the crucial 3rd match!
I really wanted to win this one, not just to wrap up the series, but also so I could experiment with the side a bit and give the likes of chatara and waller a go.
I lost the toss and once again was asked to bowl. The pitch offered nothing for the spinners but something for the pace bowlers. i was tempted to pick chatara and drop one of the spinners given the state of the pitch, but i couldn't bring myself to drop cremer or price.
Here are the sides:
B'desh innings:
The openers got off to a better start this time, although nafees was dropped in the slips in the 2nd over. Eventually, in the 8th over, iqbal was caught close off meth for 19 and yet again we had an early breakthrough- 38/1. Meth then removed the other opener, nafees was out lbw for 30 and the score was 57/2. Al hasan hammered a chigumbura over for 14, however on the last ball of that, the 18th over, he was caught leaving the score at 82/3. nazimudden was dropped on 22 off price and that mistake was to prove costly. The bangladeshis passed 200 for the first time in the series in the 39th over with a 4 from mahmudullah. In the 40th over this partnership was broken as chigumbura bowled mahmuddulah for 64 when he played across the line, 205/4. Cremer got reza, rainsford got ashraful and meth got nazi for 81 as their lower order collapsed, leaving b'desh on 234/7 with 5 overs to go. In the last over, the wickets of sharif and haque fell to cremer, leaving the bangladeshis with a respectable 261/9. This would be a challenge!Comment
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Zim innings:
we need 262 @ 5.2 runs per over. For once we made an aggressive start, scoring 8 off the first over and 40/0 after 5! My heart was in my mouth when taylor was dropped in the 10th over on 34. At the 10 over mark we already had 82/0 on the board. Masakadza reached his half-century with his 10th 4 and we passed the 100 mark without loss, 14 overs in. After the power play ended, we slowed and were at 118/0 after 20 overs. Soon the spinners were on and I was optimistic that we could score freely again as the pitch offered no turn. Taylor reached his 50 from 57 deliveries in the 23rd over. After 25 overs, with the score on 140/0 we took the powerplay and hit 10 runs that over to reach 150. Shortly after we broke the record partnership for the first wicket for zimbabwe in ODIs, 167/0. At the end of the powerplay (30 overs) we were 173 without loss, taylor 74, masakadza 95. In the 31sy over we broke the best ever zimbabwean partnership in ODIs, 182/0. Masakadza reached his century from 102 balls with a 4 and hit 2 more 4s that over to get the score over 200. In the 35th over, masakadza finally fell, lbw to haque for 118. taylor reached his his a 100 in the 41st over with a 4 from his 123rd ball. We reached the target when taylor hit his 3rd 6, we picked up a 9 wicket win, ending on 265/1 with 20 balls to spare. Taylor finished on 120, taibu on 20. An exceptional win and the series was ours! what a performance from the openers!
Don't beleive me- heres the summary:
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Great win! I won the test match by 1 wicket Meth 100 odd not out, now onto the ODI series, who to pick is my problem, there are better bowlers than batsmen around so im unsure but figuring out the right balance of attack.Comment
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Just looked at squad update with patch, taylor recognized as opener to my relieve. Annoyingly of course, the squad update dosen't affect games that have already started. Just wondering, does the recognition as opener make him any better?
BTW, well done nilet, amazing work to win the test!Last edited by Clifford; 07-25-2011, 09:47 PM.Comment
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Anyway, onto 4th ODI of the series.
And time for some squad rotation; Utseya in for cremer, young chatara for rainsford. The top 3 remains but otherwise the batting line up is mixed up as waller and mutizwa come in for ervine and williams.
Here's the line ups:
Note the drop in star rating for my side after the rotation!
The pitch clearly offered something for both seamers and spinners but i won the toss and chose to bat.
Zim innings
The innings started slowly and was off to a bad start when masakadza was bowled by Reza for 13, the score at 19/1. After 10 we were 35/1 and as the 15 over mark came, Taylor got himself stumped for 15, leaving us at 50/2. Raza in his new position of number 4 didn't last long either and we were stuttering at 90/3 after 25. Taibu was the only batsmen playing well, reaching his 50 from 55 balls. Meanwhile, wickets continued to fall, as waller was out lbw to hossain for 16- 115/4. After 35 overs we had recovered slightly to 147/4, with taibu on 69 and mutizwa on 17. I therefore took the power play, but as so often does, the power play brought a flurry of wickets. The first ball of the 36th over saw mutizwa depart and the score slumped to 166/6 when taibu was caught in the slips of mahmudullah for 83. We lost no more wickets however the new batsmen, chigumbura and meth were in no position to hit out. After 50 overs we reached 204/6, chigumbura had 30 and meth 10. This would be a challenging target to defend, although the pitch clearly offered something to the bowlers.Last edited by Clifford; 07-26-2011, 08:25 AM.Comment
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B'desh innings
Once again, the first breakthrough of the innings came in the 7th over, and it was once again the key wicket of iqbal that fell, caught in the slip cordan from meth for 5, the score 25/1. In the 13th over, nafees, who had began to hit out, skied one of meth's deliveres, which was safely taken by chatara in the deep. He went for 27 and and the score was 56/2. The very nest over, the 3rd wicket fell as al hasan edged one from chigumbura to the slips, going for 6. Price was introduced and took a wicket with his 3rd ball, nazi bowled for a duck and at the 20 over mark reza was bowled for 2 and b'desh were in real trouble on 73/5. Things coundn't really get much worse but they did, next over ashraful was out for a duck to chigumbura lbw. In the 26th over price got ghosh for 4. And just after they passed 100, Utseya picked up his 100th wicket in ODIs, removing shuvo lbw for 3. In the nest over, haque was lbw to price for 0 and the game was up at 103/9. Mahmudullah, the number 3 who was still in, hammered a few boundaries to get a battling 50. In the 37th over Hossain fell to utseya, yet another lbw and b'desh finished on 125 all out.
A 79 run win once again created by a dismal bangladeshi batting performance. you may have noticed the absence of any details regarding the much anticipated debut of chatara, thats cos his figures of 6-0-33-0 with the new ball were pretty poor! anyway, he'll have another chance in the final game, lets make it a white wash!
here's the summery:
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I think openers have some kind of bonus when facing the new ball compared to other batsmen.Originally posted by Clifford View PostComment
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