Fractured weather patterns and grim reality for Zimbabwe and Kiwis (6 June 1999)

6 June 1999

Fractured weather patterns and grim reality for Zimbabwe and Kiwis

Trevor Chesterfield

Leeds (England) - England's dodgy weather, not one of the happier blithe commentary points even in this often stirring, if stoic corner of the kingdom where the occasional shower of sleet in June has been known to end a day's play early, may yet claim its first World Cup victim.

While Zimbabwe and New Zealand may be regarded as Super Six lightweights the thought that both can have what slim advantage they have achieved in run rate affected by miserable conditions looms. Messrs Duckworth and Lewis may, today, make their long awaited tournament debut.

Going into the match Zimbabwe had a handsome enough run rate profit of +0.33 while the Kiwis were in the red at 0.40. For the Kiwis the plan was, as it were, to get into the black. When play was curtailed in typical Headingley gloom around 7pm, they were 70 for three, needing a further 106 off 35.1 overs to win.

Should play resume as late as 4.30pm, under D/L reckoning the reduction in overs should be a further 10, meaning New Zealand will have to score at a rate of around 4.70 an over to get the 92 runs needed to win. Rough calculations, agreed, but if Sunday's rain-affected county slog between Glamorgan and Derbyshire can be taken as a guide, anything is possible under D/L.

How can a side can be asked to score one run less off six balls fewer to win a match judge whether the system is fair or not? In any event, under the D/L formula the game was declared a tie. Imagine that happening at Leeds today. Almost as bad as the FLC (fixed line camera) problems which arose in the first round.

And World Cup organising committee bossman Michael Browning knows all about that as well. After weeks of telling the South African firm which invented, designed and marketed the camera system it was too expensive an operation to mount, a month before World Cup `99 was launched Browning had a British company install their own equipment, thumbing his nose at South African expertise. So much for the esoteric background to this argument.

What we are looking at after a day of play that became as flawed and as unpleasant as the Yorkshire weather was a Zimbabwe total out of keeping with their last performance, against South Africa at Chelmsford.

As with their game against England, the Zim batsmen seemed to lose the flair and bubble which was so evident against South Africa.

It was a fractured batting performance: 175 in 49.3 overs with Grant Flower's run out in the third over by Matthew Horne, as nifty a bit of fielding as you are going to see this tournament. The batting followed a similar patchy fashion. Murray Goodwin fashioned a half-century and the skipper Alistair Campbell put together a tidy 40 odd, but the side failed to recover from the moment Neil Johnson was bowled by Geoff Allott.

This bustling Kiwi fast bowler with three wickets added to his growing World Cup haul and reputation and with the speed gun clocking him at 91 mph he was up there with the big names of fire and pace Pretty good stuff for the Kiwis still searching for a replacement for Sir Richard Hadlee; that will have to wait until the next millennium though.

But three for 24 for Allott and Chris Cairns with similar figures at least gave the Kiwis the edge and Allott the tournament's leading wicket-taker with 18 to his credit and a smile or two extra in the dressing room from this hard-working New Zealander.

As for Monday, we will have to wait and see what the weather does.