Online Reporter
Robson Sharuko
H-Metro Editor
HAVING won their crown at Lord’s, fate has somehow ensured that the World Test Champions’ first match will fittingly be at Queens, in the heart of the City of Kings.
South Africa are walking with a spring in their step and for a good reason, too.
Ther stunning success over Australia, to be crowned the World Test Champions, was a coming-of-age moment in which they exorcised the ghost of chokers which had been stalking them for years.
Now, they have the small matter of playing their first game as the World Test Champions when they take on Zimbabwe’s Chevrons at Queens in the first Test, which gets underway on Saturday.
Even without the injured captain Temba Bavuma, and a number of new faces in their fold, the Proteas should start as overwhelming favourites.
The two sides met in a four-day match, which was disrupted by rain, in England earlier this month as the Proteas made their final preparations for the battle against the Aussies.
Remarkably, because these two Tests are all set for Queens, it brings England into the conversation – especially for the hosts who will be looking for every scrap of inspiration they can hold on to.
It was at Queens in December 1996 that England and Zimbabwe battled their way into history as they played in the first Test in history to end in a draw with the scores tied.
Zimbabwe scored 376 runs in the first innings and 234 in the second innings.
There was a fine contribution of 84 from Alistair Campbell and a century from Andy Flower in that first innings.
England piled on 406 runs in their first innings, with Paul Strang taking 5-123, and they were 204/6 when the match ended in a draw.
England needed three runs to win off the final ball but Nick Knight was run out going for the third.
What followed is what made headlines.
“We flippin’ murdered ‘em,” claimed David Lloyd, the England coach. “Hammered them. Bloody steamrollered them. They know it and we know it.”
To their credit, the Zimbabweans let their cricket do the talking.
And, when they thrashed England in the subsequent ODI series, forever remembered through the coup de grace delivered by Eddo Brandes’ hat-trick, the locals responded in kind.
The Herald screamed in a roadside poster, ‘Zimbabwe Murder England,’ and it set the tone for some ‘Zimbabwe Murder England’ T-shirts to start appearing in the capital.
It didn’t escape the attention of the locals that England had been the only ICC member to vote against Zimbabwe’s application to gain Full Test status.
Of course, times have changed and England’s invitation for the Chevrons to play a one-off Test match this English summer shows that the past has since been consigned into the history books.
What matters for the Chevrons now is for them to show that they can compete, especially in Tests, against the game’s major powers.
They did it in phases against England, with some individuals, including Brian Bennett, showing potential that they can help their team compete well against the heavyweights.
They need to get good contributions from the majority of the team members and making a big impression, against the team recently crowned World Test Champions, will be a step in the right direction.
The Chevrons Class of ‘96 were not expected to beat England, let alone ‘murder’ them, but they showed they could compete in the Test arena and, in the ODIs, they destroyed their visitors.
The Chevrons Class of 2025 are not expected to defeat the World Champions.
But, they are not expected to be ‘murdered’ too and somewhere in there lies the attraction of this trans-Limpopo contest.
From Lord’s to Queens, the world champions could not have asked for a better script as they celebrate their grand achievement in the game which the English founded in the late 16th century.
