‘We were battered and bruised’

Zealand and went down to the ground to have net sessions ,as well as the warm up match, they would have been amazed by the amount of grass the pitches had on.
And visions of fast bowlers dominating proceedings would have been spoken about at length.
Especially among the younger players.

So when Brendan Taylor won the toss and, quite correctly decided to bat, there certainly was a collective sigh of relief throughout the dressing room.
But, sadly for Zimbabwe, this was the start of a nightmare that had no happy awakening.
Kyle Jarvis and Brian Vitori had brief moments when Jarvis had Brendon McCullum in trouble on a few occasions when he had the explosive opener playing at deliveries outside the off stump.

And, even though Vitori sadly looks nowhere near the threat he was against Bangladesh, he was able to rush the batsmen on the odd occasions with well directed bouncers.
But when New Zealand had racked up 331 runs for the loss of just five wickets at the end of day one, signs of disaster were looming and it was worrying and disappointing to see that the speeds of the three seamers were below 130 km per hour with the fastest ball being 134 km per hour which was bowled by Vitori.

On more than one occasion, the bowlers induced the batsmen into a false shot but, because of the lack of pace, the ball fell short of the slip fielders.
And you couldn’t help but feel that if the bowlers were consistently bowling closer to the 140 km per hour mark, instead of the more gentle 130 km per hour, the fielders would have been in business.
When Zimbabwe came out to bat they would surely have felt that they were more than capable of avoiding the follow on target of 296 as the pitch never really showed signs of braking up.

But what they didn’t count on was a vastly experienced bowler by the name of Chris Martin who simply ripped the heart out of the batting on both occasions ending with match figures of 8-31.
It seemed that not one single batsman was able to deal with Martins’ ability to swing the ball back in to them as both Tino Mawoyo and Forster Mutizwa had their stumps shattered in the first innings by in swinging deliveries.
Hamilton Masakadza’s poor form must be very worrying for the selectors.

Another huge difference was the New Zealand catching, which was right out of the top drawer while Zimbabwe were once again found wanting in the catching dept as well as the general ground fielding, which still seems to be a thorn in the flesh.
On a happier note, Regis Chakabva’s second innings knock of 63 was truly impressive as his temperament and shot selection continues to improve and you can’t help but feel that a player of quality is in the making.
As badly as Zimbabwe played in this Test, I honestly believe that a one-off Test will do absolutely nothing to improve the game for this country at international level.

How can the team possibly learn anything by playing a single Test match in every series, especially when you find them ending in three days?
Even if they had a second Test match and were once again badly beaten, there would have been a marked improvement in certain areas of the game – be it batting, bowling or fielding.
Having said that, New Zealand go straight in to a busy series against the South Africans and, so once again, Zimbabwe have to be satisfied with crumbs from the King’s table.

After such a dismal performance, the obvious reaction is to lash out and blame the entire team and coaching staff as well as selection committee for the bad performance.
However, it is very important to remember a few very important statistics.
When looking at the amount of Test matches played, you will see that the Zimbabwean playing XI had up to that point played 74 Test matches with Tatenda Taibu, a reasonably experienced player, having played 27 Tests while the entire squad had played 110 Tests.
In comparison, the New Zealand squad had played 318 Test matches, out of which Daniel Vettori had played 107.

That is three Test matches less than the entire Zimbabwean squad.
So now the team will have to dig deeper than ever and find inner strength in order to compete in the upcoming three One-Day Internationals as well as the two T20 matches.
The 50-over format, in particular, will be more to their liking and there is no doubt that everyone wants a turn-around in fortunes.