da cassino： A major share of the honours had gone the way of Zimbabwe, the minnows ofTest cricket when stumps were drawn on their first ever Test series inEngland
Andy Jalil05-Jun-2000A major share of the honours had gone the way of Zimbabwe, the minnows ofTest cricket when stumps were drawn on their first ever Test series inEngland.A match which had been marred by the wet weather and was, as a consequence,heading towards a dull draw on what was going to be a meaningless final day,was somewhat unexpectedly brought to life by the enterprising tourists.Still as many as 89 runs behind, on the overnight score of 4 for 285, AndyFlower the Zimbabwe captain had put the onus on England by declaring hisfirst innings and as such challenging England to make a game of it. Theadventurous move not only livened things up but, indeed, for the first timein this series shifted the balance of play in Zimbabwe’s direction.This was clearly so during the morning period and for most of the secondsession. Overcast conditions which prevailed throughout the day, just as it’sbeen the case for the duration of this entire Test. The bowlers made fine useof the conditions and the jitters in the England batting rapidly set in.It was quite the reverse of the situation in the first Test at Lord’s. There,if Zimbabwe had begun poorly, England’s second innings here had got off to aastonishingly worse start. It was brought about by Zimbabwe’s 19-year-olddebutant pace bowler Mluleki Nkala who claimed the first two wickets with thetotal on six and put England in a position from which they never made aproper recovery.Nkala had match figures of 5 for 104 and that is a notable effort in a firstTest. With the potential that he has shown, he must be regarded as anexcellent prospect for his country. The coaching and advice that he has hadcould not have come from better quarters, having spent time in the Australiancoaching academy with Denis Lillee and spent time with Jeff Thomson and CarlRackemann.Half the England side was dismissed for 73 until Graeme Hick with 30 andEngland’s man of the series Michael Atherton with 34 were able to makereasonable contributions. Credit must be given to Zimbabwe’s bowlers who didtheir part so well after the batsmen, led by man-of-the-match MurrayGoodwin’s memorable innings yesterday had salvaged Zimbabwe’s pride.A pleasing aspect for the tourists was that all the bowlers performed well,sharing the wickets almost evenly and they were superbly supported in thefield. Unlike the previous Test, the catching as well as the ground fieldinghad shown a marked improvement.For England this one-nil series victory does not give too many reasons to getthe champagne out. Going on their performance here, the forthcoming seriesagainst West Indies seems more like a looming threat rather than one to lookforward to as it appeared after the efficiency shown at Lord’s.There was no determination shown today in the batting which lackeddiscipline. Nasser Hussain, the England captain said:” We were below par.What surprised us was how much they made of that wicket. They swung it aroundso much.”But this is precisely why England should have shown solid application. Therewas a fear after the win in the first Test that complacency would creep inand there was certainly evidence ot it here. It wasn’t just in the battingbut the bowling yesterday, when Goodwin in particular and Neil Johnson andAndy Flower were piling on the runs, had lost length and direction.While England go into the series next week on the back of a disappointingperformance, they will do well to bear in mind that West Indies have, onlylast week, defeated Pakistan in a thrilling series. It will have put them inan excellent frame of mind.