Chevrons Need to Learn the Basics of Test Cricket

By Perkins-Tino Bare

The Zimbabwe Cricket team was involved in two back to back Test matches against South Africa A and New Zealand over the holidays and yes you guessed it they lost both of them handing the series to New Zealand in a spectacular manner. Prior to that they had warmed themselves up with a date with our neighbours as they took on South Africa A in two unoffical tests with the visitors romping on to victory in the second 4-Day match played out in Bulawayo whilst they could only manage a draw in the first match played at Harare Sports Club going on to lose the series.

How Do You Play Test Cricket

Now looking from the matches that the Chevrons lost, that is against New Zealand out in Bulawayo.

The Chevs still need to get the basics correct first on how to approach a test match because from the look of things the lads had no clue on how exactly to approach the game let alone be competitive on the field of play.

This was evident especially in the way we batted out our series. We acted as if we hadn`t batted in a test match before which was true for some of the guys and the guys were so quick to lose their wickets which honestly before we even get to the strike rate or how many runs they had it was just awful. Of note was Sikander Raza who went out for 3 in the second innings that was after being bowled out for a duck in the first innigs and this is a top order batsman. When we have team having to recover constantly from murky waters of 82-5, 72-6 that just go on to show that there is something definitely wrong with the batting line-up. Without taking anythign from the New Zealand bowlers who bowled quite beautifully over the course of the series the batting coach really has to get it right with the boys from the dressing room so tat when they get onto the field of play they at least know how to approach the game.

Why I say that the lads had no clue as to how to approach the batting they could not distinguish or try to strike a balance between attcking the bowler and defending their wickets. They were either hitting whoever was bowling for fours and sixes till they lot their wicket or they were just defending their wicket trying to survive through the innings with no valuable addition the the runs themselves. These two we are both not the way to win a test match T20 or just batting as practce in the nets. That scoreboard has to be kept ticking and that`s something we have said over and over again rotation, rotation, rotation!

Rotation of the wicket is something that just seems alien to the Chevrons and that is why we cannot build any meaningful partnerships. Its as if when they were walking up to the crease they already had to either commit to being reckless and live by the sword but have a few runs on the board by the time they would lose their wicket or just stick yourself up to the crease and survive the next ball and noone really showed as if they had batting out through the day in mind. The only player who really showed a good approach to batting was Tino Mawoyo and that surprised many even from the point of his selection into the team. The man had sort of retired last year to become a commentator just like his compatriot Ed Rainsford(injury) and my biggest worry was if he was even in shape to be playing never mind his fitness levels. Well yes he was of course too fat for those quick runs between the wickets but his approach to the game reall impressed me. He took his time to get settled in the crease that`s about 3 odd overs just to settle down but once he was fresh and ready to go you could tell that he was surely up for it but then again he wasn`t fit for the task so he ended up being lazy to take those singles and opted for boundaries to add to his tally.

Then to the bowling we had Mike Chinouya, Chamu Chibhabha and Donald Tiripano leading the pace attack not knowing really who were the specialist bowlers. Captain, Graeme Cremer and Luke Jongwe together with Williams and Raza led the spin attack but one thing that i just noticed from the bowlers especially Mike Chinouya is that they were highly predictable and they lacked variation which is surely detrimental to the pace bowlers particulaly when you`re having to bowl 30 overs in a day. The bowling attack lacked any penetration and the led would swell and even when they got the wicket they hardly capitalised on the breakthroughs as the lead would start to swell once again. This then saw New Zealand having to declare in all three of the innings that they batted as we technically failed to bowl them out in all four innings ht they were supposed to bat. New Zealand won the first test with an innings and 117 runs whilst the second they win it by 254 runs. In the first test 576/6d was enough to do the business for them and they didn`t have to come out for their second innings whilst for the second test they posted 582/4d and 166/2d. Now that just goes on to show the ineffectiveness of our bowling attack and even the captain Graeme Cremer he was clueless as he rarely changed the outfield and did not really put much into organising how his fielders were placed .

Now with the scheduled Tests against Sri Lanka being reportedly modified into a tri-series with West Indies being thrown in the fix, we could see Test cricket agin as late as July 2017 when we face for our away matches in Sri Lanka that after having played our last match before the preceding one against New Zealand back in 2014 when we played South Africa before the series against Bangladesh. ZC might be in favor of what is cost-effective for them and would easily bring them a couple of dollars as ODI`s and T20`s seems to draw the crowds but in all honesty we really need more matches the lads don`t know how to play Test Cricket and its a shame.

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