da brwin： The opposition, in the words of coach Roger Harper, was not ascompetitive as we had hoped, but the West Indies enjoyed a satisfyingday in the sun here yesterday all the same
Tony Cozier27-Jun-2001The opposition, in the words of coach Roger Harper, was not ascompetitive as we had hoped, but the West Indies enjoyed a satisfyingday in the sun here yesterday all the same.Fulfilling their request for a much-needed practice match, theZimbabwe Cricket Union (ZCU) assembled a combination under the name ofZimbabwe A, a mixture of the old and the new, five of them young,promising black players who are the game’s future here.It proved a no-contest, the West Indies compiling 277 for six fromtheir 50 overs, with captain Carl Hooper and Shivnarine Chanderpaulallowing the apprentices to make the most of the favourableconditions.They then reduced the composite team to 69 for seven before relaxingso that the total reached 124 when the innings ended in the 30th over.The purpose of the exercise was to give those who needed it a chancein the middle and to sharpen up on some of the basics. Judging by theobvious high spiritedness on the field what Harper referred to asrelaxed but focused it did morale good, following on Saturday’svictory over Zimbabwe in the first match of the Coca-Cola Series.The humiliating loss to the Country Districts exactly a week earlierseemed a distant memory.In his first innings of the tour, Ramnaresh Sarwan made 94 from 103balls before he was run out by a direct hit by Paul Strang in the lastover.A touch and placement player, he had 40 singles and five fours in his94.His nimble footwork and wristy strokeplay were in good order but thereseems no place for him in the middle order for the One-Day game.Like Sarwan, Corey Collymore had not previously played and he wouldhave been content with his eight overs and his two wickets, one to anedge to second slip, the other that ripped out opener Henry Makadza’soff-stump.There were other pleasing aspects, notably the running between thewickets and the absence of a single no-ball, carrying on fromSaturday’s victory over Zimbabwe when there were four in 50 overs.The 277 was raised more by the 100 singles than the two sixes and 18fours.It’s something among many things we’re working on, Harper said. You’llfind that there were times in Australia (in the triangular CarltonSeries earlier this year) when Australia would beat us by a big marginand yet we would end up hitting more boundaries than them.