Tinashe Kusema
Zimpapers Sports Hub
THE senior national cricket team is now turning its attention to Test cricket after a disappointing white ball matches against Afghanistan.
The two teams have met twice in One Day Internationals with the hosts taking both match-ups convincingly during the tri-series which also involved Bangladesh.
Afghanistan then took the T20 series, a 3-0 drubbing that culminated in a seven-wicket victory during which they bowled out Zimbabwe for 79 runs on Sunday.
“Yeah, it has been a very disappointing series, obviously. They certainly do have our number,” said Chevrons coach Justin Sammons after Sunday’s humiliating loss.
“They are just more skilful. The seamers have good control and swing it both ways at will. And then their spinners are obviously very different to ours in that they are mystery spinners.
“They turn it both ways at pace, targeting the stumps, and they give you very little to work with. With the bat, they have got such destructive batters, clean strikers of the ball.
“They appear to be T20 specialists, if you want to call it that, or white-ball specialists,” he said. The result brought their head-to-head count to 23 wins for Afghanistan compared to the Chevrons’ two from their 24 T20 matches.
Only Bangladesh has played more T20s against Zimbabwe, with 28 matches, and they also carry a healthy 19 wins to nine.
Sunday’s match appears to be a visible reminder of the gulf that exists between the two nations.
“They are good bowlers and clean hitters,” said the Chevrons’ coach.
“They are very much in line with modern T20 cricket. And it is where we have come unstuck – our skills department. We can’t match, or we are not matching up to that in terms of our power hitting.
“We did well with the ball in the series up front, but then let things get away. And that’s the disappointing thing; we had real opportunities in the first two games to close out games when they were four or five down for nothing on the board.
“You have got to be ruthless and we were not. We offered them easy scoring opportunities and that got their momentum up and let them get away from us.
“So we have got ourselves to blame there for letting them off the hook,” he said.
Sammons added that Afghanistan also have specialists below those guys playing in the leagues, and they are more T20 specialists in comparison to our players, most of whom are staying behind for the Test series.
He noted how two of the Zimbabwe T20 players leave as compared to only two Afghanistan players staying.
Of course, the two nations are slated to move over to red-ball cricket with two Test matches lined up for the next two weeks.
The first Test is slated for November 5-9, after which the two sides will meet again for the second which is scheduled for November 13-17.
Zimbabwe and Afghanistan have met only five times in Test cricket, with each side enjoying two wins while one encounter ended in a draw.
Zimbabwe do, however, go into the Test matches with all the momentum after their innings and 73-run victory earlier this year.
Sammons has, however, refused to read too much into that match but rather focus on the task at hand.
“We have only played the one Test this year, which is a bit disappointing, but it gives us an opportunity to play what is the pinnacle of all cricket – Test cricket.
“The two Tests give us an opportunity to put some game time in the longer version of the game and the guys are super excited for that. It is an opportunity to change colours, from coloured clothing to white and from a white ball to a red ball.
“So I think everybody’s really excited about that. We really hope to go out there and play good cricket. It is going to be a real grind. It is going to be challenging, obviously, in these conditions, compared to the last time we played them in Harare, where there was pace and balance.
“We were able to blow them away with that but we are not going to be able to do that now,” he said.
