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Jeffrey Murimbechi Sports Correspondent
ZIMBABWE coach Andy Waller believes that their batting let them down as the hosts fell to a 108-run defeat to Pakistan at Harare Sports Club on Saturday and lose the One Day International series. Misbah-ul-Haq had a captain’s knock of 67 runs as they racked up 260 for six off their 50 overs, Zimbabwe were all out for 152 in 40 overs.
Zimbabwe had put the visitors under pressure with a historic all-round performance that gave them a seven wicket historic victory in the first ODI.
Pakistan then levelled the series in the second match, winning by 90 runs after Mohammad Hafeez scored 136 off 130 balls.
There are various human resource issues regarding remuneration that have resulted in tension between the players and Zimbabwe Cricket leading up to the final ODI on Saturday but coach, Waller, ruled out that anything outside the cricket field was responsible for the result.
“We are not making excuses because Pakistan played damn good cricket. They (Zimbabwe) are young guys and it is very difficult to focus on today and concentrate on cricket and forget about what happened, unfortunately it’s always going to be there unless you are incredibly mentally strong,” Waller said.
Waller felt that his charges were confident enough to chase 260 runs and that the batting let Zimbabwe down.
This, he said, was the major distinction between the two sides.
Prior to the series, Zimbabwe had massive batting frailties such as an ineffective top order and grossly misfiring middle order — all of which disappeared during the Pakistan tour.
“We went out there and honestly believed that we could win it. When I spoke to the guys at the innings break I said to them that in both games we could have chased down 260. We believed that we could do it, unfortunately some of our senior players didn’t play the shots that should have been played.
“Once you lose two or three early wickets like that and you only have seven specialist batsmen then obviously you are under pressure and that’s our biggest problem.”
Tuesday’s victory was a positive sign which was an immaculate display of the formula where potential = application = result.
Waller is convinced that Zimbabwe has the right set of competent players to match up with international sides.
“I definitely think that we have the right calibre of players, I would not have taken this job if I didn’t think so.
“I know we lost today but I think we have gained a huge amount since India came.
“For our guys to believe that they could have beaten Pakistan shows we certainly have the belief.
“It’s the mental side we need to work on and it is very difficult with the little cricket that we are playing and it will help us handle the pressure,” Waller said.
Zimbabwe will have another tall order and will be put to the ‘test’ on Tuesday when the two teams will play in the first of two Test matches at Harare Sports Club.
Online Reporter