Chronicle Editor
VICTORIOUS South African skipper AB De Villiers said he is very happy with the result, but would have liked to score more runs personally and also for the team. He also said he is thrilled to feature again in Tests.
On his back issue, AB confidently said he is now fine. On Quinton de Kock’s hamstring injury, de Villiers hopes that he will be fit for the first Indian Test.
The scans do not reveal too much damage. He was not too happy with the fact that they got only two days of cricket, but reckons that majority of the players would be fit for the upcoming Indian series, especially Faf du Plessis.
He praised his bowlers for being very consistent and not letting the opposition get away at all. He also hopes that they make good use of this break and return fresh for the Indian series. He admitted that a batting collapse is not what the Proteas would have wanted, but is confident that they will do better against India.
On playing a day/night Test, de Villiers felt the night session is probably the most difficult and hence the most important session of the game; plus the condition and colour of the ball are challenging too. He said once the players get used to all these factors, day/night Tests will get easier to play as well.
Graeme Cremer was very disappointed. He said they knew it was always going to be tough after playing the warm-up game in Paarl. He said they tried their best to be prepared, but unfortunately were no match for the Proteas. He felt that the pitch was more about a mental thing.
Cremer said they did reasonably well in Sri Lanka and at home against West Indies and could have done well here too, but did not assess the conditions that well. He did not agree that Zimbabwe were perhaps overawed by the team and the surroundings.
On his team’s upcoming games, Cremer said they will be travelling to Bangladesh for a tri-series and then to New Zealand to play the World Cup Qualifiers. He admitted that there is plenty of work to do for his side.
Terrific bowling? Poor batting?
Combination of both. Hard to find positives amidst the batting when you have lost 16 wickets in a day, but the Zimbabwean side is clearly short of skill when it comes to playing Test cricket. No proper batsman stood up in either innings and that shows when your number 9 player in the batting order is the highest scorer in both innings combined.
Half-time! Yaa… normally in soccer and hockey and a few other sports, when half the time allotted elapses, the players take a break, resulting in half time. Well, theoretically, this was supposed to be a four-day Test with 392 overs scheduled. We did not have even two complete days and the number of overs bowled are 151.1.
So not even half time, but that is how short this Test match has been. Abject, abject, abject Zimbabwe. – Cricket Next
Online Reporter