adminGUDAKESH MOTIE took 13 wickets and despite Craig Ervine’s resistance, Zimbabwe crumbled to an inevitable defeat by an innings and four runs in the second and final Test at Queens Sports Club yesterday.
The Windies won the series 1-0.
What they said: Gudakesh Motie (Player of the Match/Player of the Series): “I am feeling really good, practised a lot for this series and it paid off. Very happy, these tracks are similar to the pitches in my country, so I was just concentrating on doing the basics.”
Kraigg Brathwaite (West Indies captain: “Very proud of the team, coming into the second game we had a plan and glad we executed it. We can’t control the rain, we knew we had to get runs as quick as possible today but we didn’t. Despite that, the guys were very calm. Gabriel, Joseph and Holder created pressure and that allowed Motie to express himself.
‘‘I was backing the bowlers to do the job and didn’t really feel like I needed to bowl much. At the beginning of the tour, we had 4 test matches here in Africa, two are done but South Africa are a good side so we’re looking forward to that.”
Craig Ervine (Zimbabwe captain): “I thought winning the toss on the first day, we had to bat well but unfortunately, that didn’t go according to plan. It put us on the back foot straightaway. Always nice to get runs but it didn’t contribute much to the cause. It is difficult (to prepare for Tests with limited prep), we had about 7-10 days of training leading to this series and some domestic gametime. We can’t use all this as an excuse to be honest.
‘‘He (Ballance) is a massive miss and this match showed the hole that he left behind. They (Mavuta and Nyauchi) have been brilliant. It’s been nice to see them develop. We have our domestic T20 comp coming up soon, so we need to get our focus to that one.” — Cricinfo.
Online Reporter