Inconsistency costs Zimbabwe ‘A’

Zimbabwe A cricket team put up a performance that they will want to quickly forget after a whitewash by Pakistan A in the two-match four day series that was played at Kwekwe and Mutare sports clubs.

There were only a handful of good performances across the two matches from Zimbabwe players as the visitors made light work of the home side.

Inconsistency was the order of the day throughout the two matches where one good performance was followed by a dismal one. Players who managed to show some fight in them include Joylord Gumbie, Nyasha Mayavo, Tanunurwa Makoni and Dion Myers as most of the middle order batters gave nothing and with the ball in hand, despite being inconsistent, Tanaka Chivanga and Victor Nyauchi did show some quality in them.

Gumbie, in both matches came in good in the second innings of the game with some good knocks. In the first match, after a poor bowling and batting display by the home side in the first innings, Gumbie put up a good fight in the second stanza after Pakistan A had declared their first innings on 521/3 in 115,3 overs.

The 27-year-old Gumbie scored a well batted 115 runs from 202 balls and was supported by Makoni who fell for 57 runs off 109 deliveries after the duo notched up a 100 runs stand for the first wicket.

Having taken one wicket, Chivanga levelled up with the bat, scoring 58 runs from 47 balls as they helped Zimbabwe avoid an innings defeat and set a target which Pakistan A easily chased down after losing just two wickets which were taken by Wessly Madhevere and Brandon Mavuta.

It seemed no lessons were learnt from Kwekwe as Zimbabwe A went on to put up yet another dismal display in Mutare in the second match which ended on Saturday. One would argue that Zimbabwe A did not even “go back to the drawing board.”

Another poor display with the bat in the first innings of the second match followed, once again, with the middle order failing to build on a good foundation laid at the top.

Tadiwanashe Marumani and Myers put up the only notable partnership before they both fell for 66 and 50 runs respectively and Zimbabwe A went on to finish on 163 runs in 56,4 overs in the first innings.

Pakistan A responded by scoring a mammoth 479 runs to take a second innings of 316 runs, a score which, given the hosts’ batting performances, was too big a job.

Nyauchi came to the party with the ball for the hosts, taking a five wicket haul to finish with figures of 5/125 in 26 overs while Chivanga took three scalps for 89 runs in 19,2 overs. The other two wickets were taken by Myers and the skipper Roy Kaia.

The home side went on to finish on 275 runs to lose the match by an innings and 41 runs on Saturday.

In the second innings, there was only one half century from the Zimbabwean side, which was Mayavo’s 55 runs which came after facing 108 balls while Gumbie and Tony Munyonga fell short of their milestones on 42 and 43 runs respectively.

Some of the best performances from Pakistan A in both matches came from Mohammad Ali with the ball while Haseebullah Khan, Omair Yousuf, Muhammad Hurraira and Hussain Talat did the damage with the bat.

In order to win a red-ball match, a team has to be able to take 20 wickets in a match, something which Zimbabwe A failed to do in all both games, thus leaving a lot to be done on the team.

A lot of effort and hard work should be put in if the team wants to be competitive when facing world-class players. Consistency should be the order of the day.

With the red-ball matches completed, action moves to Harare for the 50-over series pitting a Zimbabwe Select team against the tourists, with the first encounter pencilled in for Wednesday at Takashinga Cricket Club in Harare.

The rest of the matches will then be played at Harare Sports Club on May 19, 21, 23, 25 and 27 to round off a busy first five months of international cricket for Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe is using the series as part of their preparations for next month’s International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2023.

The 10-team global event is set to take place from 18 June to 9 July 2023 in Harare and Bulawayo and the series against Pakistan A will be Zimbabwe’s last ahead of the crunch qualifiers. – @brandon_malvin