HARARE Zimbabwe once again suffered another defeat at the hands of Bangladesh away from home, a 1-4 drubbing that confirmed the Asian countrys supremacy over their African opponents. (Pictured: National bowling coach Heath Streak)
(Pictured: Vice captain Hamilton Masakadza)
This after Zimbabwe started the tour on a promising note by winning the first limited overs match by 5 wickets but only to succumb to the attack of the Tigers spinners, recording the lowest total in this years history of One Day International (ODI) cricket.
Zimbabwe scored a meagre 44 runs with their top scorer, Malcom Waller, only recording just 13 runs on the board in the fourth match. Their low score hogged the limelight last week after going beyond Pakistans humiliating 75 against Sri-Lanka last January.
Zimbabwe currently hold the record of the team that has scored the lowest total in ODI cricket after their dismal 35 runs against Sri Lanka at home in 2004.
Wicket-keeper batsman Tatenda Taibu, national bowling coach Heath Streak, vice captain Hamilton Masakadza and keeper, Brendan Taylor, talk of their challenging tour of Bangladesh.
Tatenda Taibu: There have been lots of ups and downs. I cant wait for the day when there will be lots of ups. When there are ups and downs you realise that there is a lot of work to be done. As long as I am around I would try to show that we are pushing and striving towards success and the peak of the mountain.
We dont have a lot of spinners in Zimbabwe. Thats a fact, unlike here in Bangladesh where probably every all-rounder is a left-arm spinner. So they have a lot of left-arm spinners in the nets and the games and you get used to them quicker. That is a minor difference but the more we play against Bangladesh the more we learn how to dominate Bangladeshi spinners.
Heath Streak: This (Bangladesh) is a much younger side obviously and less experienced but in terms of talent they have plenty of it. Once they mature I believe they are going to be a top side in international cricket.
I have been very impressed with Tamim (Iqbal). Then you have the captain Shakib (Al Hasan). Ashraful (Mohammad) we all know can be a match-winner on his day. So theres a lot of solidity in batting. The only thing is that they need to understand the different tempo of T20, limited overs and Test cricket as they all like to play their shots.
The wicket did offer assistance to the spinners but our batsmen also contributed to the collapse. There were too many soft dismissals.
I think we have not done well here because we played spin poorly. Shakib and Razzak (Abdur) are obviously class spinners but our application was not good. In the earlier matches we got ourselves into good positions and then faltered.
Hamilton Masakadza: I was confident that 221 (in the last ODI) was definitely a winning score. On that wicket anything from 180 onwards is competitive so the 40 odd runs were a bonus. I am very disappointed that we lost the match. We should have won it easily.
I thought we were a bit unlucky. A decision did not go our way when the game was supposed to be finished with 30-odd required by them. I thought the guys bowled really well and fought hard to stay in the game after Brendan Taylor had put us in a good position with the bat.
Brendan Taylor: Scoring my maiden century gave me a pleasing feeling but it is still frustrating that we lost. It was very, very pleasing for me in the sense that I have got three or four 90s so it was nice to finally convert one into a hundred. But the loss is very painful. There is still a lot of positives to take out of this game and hopefully well take that into the upcoming series against South Africa.
I think (Shakib Al Hasan and Abdur Razzak) are two very good spinners. You just got to occupy the crease and spend a little bit of time in the middle. When you have Shakib and Razzak bowling from both ends it is tough to get away and they are wicket-takers. They have bowled well all series and all credit to them. They deserve what they have done.
Post published in: Cricket