Report on Zimbabwe A v Zimbabwe Under-19s 3rd match 2003/04

Report on Zimbabwe A v Zimbabwe Under-19s 3rd match 2003/04 by John Ward

Scorecard:

Zimbabwe A won their third victory against the Zimbabwe Under-19 team in a high-scoring match at Harare Sports Club. It was not a day for bowlers – not that much of the bowling was of a high quality – and the main features were fine centuries by Brendan Taylor and Dion Ebrahim.

Taylor, a likely Test player in the very near future, continued his run orgy with an unbeaten 153, on the back of 94 and 112 in the previous two matches. His remarkable form has made his team thoroughly competitive against Zimbabwe A, and it came after a most unsuccessful Faithwear inter-provincial series where he hardly seemed able to get the ball off the square.

Taylor says he has not made any significant adjustments to his game since then but thinks, paradoxically, that he has been doing better because he has been leaving more balls alone at the start of his innings. Certainly he has received undue assistance in this from the Zimbabwe A bowlers, who have been almost as profligate as his own in the use of the wide ball.

Taylor’s usual partner in crime, James Cameron, scored only 11 this time, and his only significant partner was Craig Ervine, younger brother of Sean and a 2003 Academy graduate. They both lashed the bowling mercilessly in adding 116 after Elton Chigumbura retired. It would normally be recorded as ‘retired hurt’, but since the batsman walked off without any communication with the umpires, they instructed it to be recorded as ‘retired out’. Embarrassingly for Chigumbura, the bowler was off-spinner Douglas Marillier, but the ball in question was a much faster, shorter one that took him by surprise and hit him on the forearm.

It was a good batting pitch and 298 for four was an impressive but not overwhelming total. Taylor hit 20 fours and 2 sixes in his innings, which lasted 164 balls. Trevor Gripper was the most economical bowler, conceding only 38 runs off his 10 overs.

Dion Ebrahim and Gripper began carefully and then played some dashing strokes to keep the scoreboard moving at more than six an over. Gripper made 54 before being caught in the covers, and then Hamilton Masakadza batted very well for 37 before being run out as Ebrahim dithered about a quick single that would have taken him to his fifty. Unfortunately Masakadza did himself no credit by arguing with the umpire, although clearly out of his ground, and then throwing his bat and gloves to the ground on leaving the field.

Ebrahim looked more impressive the longer he batted, and must have been highly relieved to record his first century for a very long time. He and Andre Hoffman finished the match with some big hitting – four sixes to Hoffman - and Zimbabwe A completed a three-nil victory in the series with 49 balls to spare. They finished with 121 and 41 respectively.

The Under-19 team did not have the bowlers to defend their total and, to be honest, they were only able to push Zimbabwe A in the three-match series due to the superb batting of Taylor and Cameron. The talent at the top is rather thin, but much can be done to paper over the cracks if the players work at bowling more accurately and working untiringly at their fielding, and raise the standard from the mediocre to the excellent.