England v Zimbabwe, Second Test, Day 5
A major share of the honours had gone the way of Zimbabwe, the minnows of Test cricket when stumps were drawn on their first ever Test series in England
Andy Jalil
05-Jun-2000
A major share of the honours had gone the way of Zimbabwe, the minnows of
Test cricket when stumps were drawn on their first ever Test series in
England.
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, Andy
Flower the Zimbabwe captain had put the onus on England by declaring his
first innings and as such challenging England to make a game of it. The
adventurous move not only livened things up but, indeed, for the first time
in this series shifted the balance of play in Zimbabwe's direction.
This was clearly so during the morning period and for most of the second
session. Overcast conditions which prevailed throughout the day, just as it's
been the case for the duration of this entire Test. The bowlers made fine use
of 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 a
astonishingly worse start. It was brought about by Zimbabwe's 19-year-old
debutant pace bowler Mluleki Nkala who claimed the first two wickets with the
total on six and put England in a position from which they never made a
proper recovery.
Nkala had match figures of 5 for 104 and that is a notable effort in a first
Test. With the potential that he has shown, he must be regarded as an
excellent prospect for his country. The coaching and advice that he has had
could not have come from better quarters, having spent time in the Australian
coaching academy with Denis Lillee and spent time with Jeff Thomson and Carl
Rackemann.
Half the England side was dismissed for 73 until Graeme Hick with 30 and
England's man of the series Michael Atherton with 34 were able to make
reasonable contributions. Credit must be given to Zimbabwe's bowlers who did
their part so well after the batsmen, led by man-of-the-match Murray
Goodwin'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 the
field. Unlike the previous Test, the catching as well as the ground fielding
had shown a marked improvement.
For England this one-nil series victory does not give too many reasons to get
the champagne out. Going on their performance here, the forthcoming series
against West Indies seems more like a looming threat rather than one to look
forward to as it appeared after the efficiency shown at Lord's.
There was no determination shown today in the batting which lacked
discipline. Nasser Hussain, the England captain said:" We were below par.
What surprised us was how much they made of that wicket. They swung it around
so much."
But this is precisely why England should have shown solid application. There
was a fear after the win in the first Test that complacency would creep in
and there was certainly evidence ot it here. It wasn't just in the batting
but the bowling yesterday, when Goodwin in particular and Neil Johnson and
Andy Flower were piling on the runs, had lost length and direction.
While England go into the series next week on the back of a disappointing
performance, they will do well to bear in mind that West Indies have, only
last week, defeated Pakistan in a thrilling series. It will have put them in
an excellent frame of mind.