Zim flatter to deceive

provided the support in a century opening stand but, after the openers departed, the demons returned and Zimbabwe collapsed to their third sub-200 total at this Cricket World Cup and a huge defeat against Sri Lanka.
But even after seeing his bowlers battling for 45 overs to get their first wicket at the Pallekele International Stadium, and the last nine wickets falling for just 72 runs on Thursday, Zimbabwe skipper Elton Chigumbura still found a reason to look ahead for the future with optimism.
It hasn’t been a great tournament for the Zimbabweans, winning a game against Canada they were expected to win, failing to compete against New Zealand when they were expected to do better, fielding well but batting badly against Australia and crashing to a 139-run defeat against Sri Lanka.
But, incredibly, they are still not out of this World Cup and if they pick themselves up and beat Pakistan here on Monday and then defeat Kenya in Kolkata, coupled with Pakistan’s loss to Australia in their final game, a window could be opened for Chigumbura and his men.
While Zimbabwe have shown, in patches, that they can play good cricket, as a team, they have failed to find the spirit needed to compete against the established sides. The easy part would be to dismiss this group of players, and its coaching staff, as hopeless pretenders who are seemingly too good for the likes of Kenya and Canada but out of depth with the competition when it comes to the established sides. But that will certainly be unfair on a group of individuals who are paying a huge price for Zimbabwe’s time away from the big time, a period in which they have constantly judged themselves against Bangladesh, and where they have not been afforded the experience of playing in the conditions they now face at this World Cup.
When players have to adjust to the conditions, at World Cup level, it’s asking for too much from them to compete favourably against the established sides who keep playing under these conditions all the time during the regular tours.
Thursday’s match was the first time the Zimbabweans were playing in Sri Lanka conditions, in an ODI, in nine years. For 20 overs, in the run chase, they competed as an inspired Taylor turned on the show, receiving good support from Chakabva who was content to play the supporting role, swinging and missing a number of deliveries but staying around to score a useful 35 as the openers took the score to 166-0 in pursuit of 328 to win. But once Chakabva fell to Muttiah Muralitharan and Taylor, who scored 80, also departed, the writing was on the wall for the Zimbabweans and most of their supporters will fell let down that the team didn’t make a match of a run chase that had looked promising on a good batting track.
They had contained the menace of Lasith Malinga and appeared to do well against Muralitharan but once the breakthrough came, with Chakabva being bowled by the master spinner in his final ODI in his hometown here, it was all downhill for the Zimbabweans. Chigumbura highlighted the challenges that his team faces, in their attempts to be a better side, with fewer matches against different opponents curtailing their progress.
“Playing in these conditions your line has to be different from other continents and the way you have to bat, more straight than across,” he told a media conference after the Sri Lanka game.
“We’ve learnt that, but we have to apply all those things we have learnt and put it together for a good game against Pakistan.”
The Zimbabwe skipper, who won the toss and put Sri Lanka in to bat, said while the records will show that they lost heavily against Sri Lanka, they will conceal the fact that it was because they were trying to get the runs as compared to just batting the entire 50 overs without trying to chase the score.
“It’s a big loss but I think the approach that we took was positive. Though we were all out we were going for the score,” said Chigumbura.
“If you wanted to play for a better score or better defeat we could’ve lasted 50 overs. But we were all positive going for it, so it’s something we have to improve on where we went wrong today.”
There were concerns about Chigumbura’s decision to field, after winning the toss, given that it was a good batting track but the Zimbabwe skipper said he had backed his battery of spinners.
As it turned out Prosper Utseya and Raymond Price picked just one wicket each, but to be fair to them, those scalps also came when the Sri Lankans were now in the mood to try and push the score given that they were running out of overs while still having a lot of wickets in hand.
But one also has to give credit for all the bowlers for the way they came back, especially in the last 15 overs, which again presents the same story line being preached by Chigumbura that they are learning as they are playing because they are not familiar to these conditions.
It was clear, as Tillakaratne Dilshan and Upul Tharang batted, that the ball was coming nicely to the bat and they punished anything that was over-pitched or was wide.
The two Zimbabwe seamers Chris Mpofu (4-62 from seven overs) and Tinashe Panyangara (0-51 from six overs) took a hammering in their initial spell although both came back showing better control and Mpofu was rewarded with his four wickets at the end as Sri Lanka reached 327-6.
His captain also praised the lanky seamer for his fine comeback show.
“I think Chris Mpofu bowled particularly well in the last four overs.”
Zimbabwe needed a solid start and when Taylor, playing a mixture of glorious shots and improvised uppercuts, took the initiative, with support from Chakabva, and put 116 without loss for the first wicket, the party crowd inside the Pallekele, one of the noisiest at a cricket ground, had been silenced.
“I think the first 20 overs were good and we were within the run-rate that we wanted,” said Chigumbura.
Such was Zimbabwe’s strong reply that, after 22 overs, they were level on the same score as Sri Lanka although, unlike the hosts, they had lost a wicket. Chigumbura felt that his team could have got more.
“It was a good wicket to bat on. Dilshan and Tharanga both batted pretty well and like you saw with our batting, for the first 20 overs our opening batsmen played really well, so it was a good track to bat on,” he said.
“You can’t really take three or four wickets first-up on that.”
Chigumbura said his team will simply have to do well against Pakistan on Monday.
“The most important one is the next game against Pakistan”, he said.
“We just have to play our best cricket and, hopefully, we will play well – bowling as well as batting.”
Once again Zimbabwe will be haunted by what might have been. After Taylor’s blistering knock, and Chakabva’s supporting role, they can only wonder what could have been the result had the other frontline batsmen also fired.
Sadly Tatenda Taibu (4), Utseya (4) and Chigumbura (6) meant that all the hard work of the first 20 overs was gone.