Zim lose four-day match

slumping to a seven wicket defeat against Australia A on the last day of the first four-day match at Country Club yesterday.
The Zimbabwe all rounder put behind his back the disappointment of the first innings performance when he was dismissed for a duck when he returned with a run a ball 108 runs, which included 16 fours and four sixes.

His ton shored up Zimbabwe XI’s innings after the hosts had resumed their innings from an overnight score of 134/3 to finish their second innings on 346 runs shortly after lunch.
Hamilton Masakadza (91) was also impressive although he fell short of a century, but his sixth wicket stand of 102 runs with Chigumbura ensured the hosts ended the match with a greater measure of respectability.
Australia A had built a healthy lead after putting 439 runs on the board in their first innings.

Despite Zimbabwe’s mini recovery they still had the whole afternoon chasing 138 runs for victory and they accomplished their mission in 26.4 overs for the loss of three wickets.
Opener David Warner helped the tourists’ charge with a quickfire half century after cracking 82 runs from 57 deliveries.

Chigumbura, Malcom Waller and Brian Vitori picked one wicket each.
The Zimbabweans had got off on the backfoot when they were shot out for 230 runs in their first innings before man of the match Philip Hughes’ century (125) inspired the tourists to a mammoth total of 439 on the second day.

Zimbabwe XI got off to a bad start yesterday, resuming on 134/3, and losing Keegan Meth (9) and Craig Ervine (0) early to leave the team on 147/5. But Masakadza and Chigumbura combined for a sixth wicket partnership of 102 from 119 balls. Australian bowlers Trent Copeland and Michael Beer took three wickets each while Mitch Marsh had two.

Despite the defeat assistant coach Steve Mangongo said he drew positives from the team spirit but revealed the technical side was still concerned by the batsmen’s failure to convert good starts into high scores.
Mangongo also rued the low first innings’ score of 230, which he said was a result of complacency after the top order had begun on a good footing on the first day.

He said we will regroup for the second match which begins on Thursday at Harare Sports Club hoping for a change of fortunes.
“Well, this being the first unofficial Test for us, we wanted to see exactly where we are. Generally the boys played very well and we are satisfied by the performance because they competed throughout.

“I think everything is on course but what we need to do is to make sure that when we set in we should convert and get big scores. We have four guys getting 50s and those four guys should have converted apart from Elton.
“That could have set us on. Scoring 230 all out in first innings after we had resumed from 153/3 to me was the turning point where we let it slip.
There was complacency from the players and that to me was frustrating.
“Once you get a small total in the first innings, you are chasing the game. So from then on we were in the game although the bowlers tried their best on a good batting wicket.
We were behind because 230 was not enough,” said Mangongo.