Date-stamped : 13 Dec96 - 14:12
Day 1 report Electronic Telegraph

Knight gets to century twice on day of valuable rehearsals

Martin Johnson in Bulawayo


SCORES of seven, six and three in his first three innings hardly
constituted a flying start to Nick Knight's tour of Zimbabwe,
but on the opening day of England's match against Matabeleland,
he more than made up for it with the rare feat of scoring a
century twice in one innings.

Zimbabwean cricket scoreboards tend to operate rather like their
telephones, in that the advertised number is seldom the correct
one, so when Knight struck his 14th boundary to move his score
on from the 96 next to his name his celebrations were always in
danger of being slightly premature.

One minute Knight was doffing his helmet and shaking hands with
his batting partner, and the next he was casting a bemused look
at a scoreboard which now told him he had reached 99. He took a
deep breath, ran a frantic single and went through his
celebrations all over again.

It scarcely mattered to Knight that the only applause came from
his own dressing-room, not because the crowd was unappreciative,
but because there wasn't a crowd to be unappreciative or
otherwise.

As with so many countries, only the one-day version of the game
here strikes a major chord, and the publication of Zimbabwe's
squad for the first Test in the morning paper was only
decipherable with the assistance of a magnifying glass.

For England, though, this match is vital to their pre-Test
preparations, and both the team and Knight, who was 100 not out
from 177 balls at the close, can be grateful that the Bula- wayo
Athletic Ground must have been built on kitchen towels.

It rained so hard after only 90 minutes' play, that Bulawayo
High Street was passable only by gondola, and had this been,
say, Grace Road, Leicester, the umpires would be planning a
further inspection round about Christmas Day.

However, the ground dried out so remarkably that 54 overs from
the allocated 97 were bowled, in which time Knight, and to a
lesser extent Alec Stewart and Nasser Hussain, had a worthwhile
work-out against two of the pace bowlers they are likely to be
facing in the first Test, Heath Streak, and the first black
cricketer to play Test cricket for Zimbabwe, Henry Olonga.

The one batsman to miss out (again) was captain Michael
Atherton. The pitch was lively in the first hour, and Atherton
had the misfortune to get a beauty from Olonga, which pitched
off and hit middle.

The captain, who batted for 10.75 hours to save a Test in South
Africa last winter, has now had only two hours at the crease in
five innings on tour, facing 85 balls and scoring 41 runs.

He lasted only five overs yesterday, which was Stewart's longest
wait so far to get in to bat in his new role at number three. He
looked in rare form, savaging anything short, and though Olonga
and Streak both looked lively, Hussain was also encouragingly
secure against them.

Stewart often gets out when he looks as though he is about to
take an attack apart, and this time he slashed a wide one from
Streak to third slip for 39.

Hussain made 38 before being caught behind off Olonga, and
Knight might have been out both on 69 and 79 when he was
dropped, first by the wicketkeeper and then by first slip. Each
time, the bowler who proved a bit of a handful - not to mention
a mouthful - was Mpumelelo Mbangwa.

Day 2 Report

Gough stretches case for new-ball revival

By Martin Johnson in Bulawayo

DARREN GOUGH has a burning desire to go bungee jumping at
Victoria Falls during England's tour of Zimbabwe, but given the
parlous state of his team's bowling resources, and Gough's own
importance in the scheme of things, it will almost certainly
result in a case of permission denied.

It has to be said that putting the wind up Matabeleland's
batsmen equates as a job reference, to turning up with two
O-levels for the chairmanship of ICI, but Gough's five for 62 in
16 overs at Bulawayo Athletic Ground yesterday was nonetheless
welcome evidence that he can now pick up again where he left off
in June, 1995.

That was when Gough took his last Test wicket (v West Indies,
Junior Murray) at Lord's, in a game that some thought might be
the start of a partnership that, while not quite Trueman and
Statham perhaps, would at least serve England well for many
years.

Dominic Cork made his debut in that game, taking seven for 43,
but Cork is currently in Derbyshire sorting out domestic
problems, while Gough is attempting to rekindle one of the few
sparks of England's pathetic tour to Australia in 1994-95.

England suffered so many breakdowns on that tour that they would
have been refused membership by the AA, and it was on a one-day
international in Melbourne, as Gough ran in to bowl the first
ball of Australia's innings, that he collapsed in a heap with a
stress fracture of the foot. It was a ticket home, and the start
of a long struggle to recapture his best form. It has to be said
that not everything Gough served up yesterday was out of the top
drawer, against a batting line-up that contained only two
contenders for the Zimbabwean Test team, and whose collective
strokeplay amounted to not much more than the eyes-closed carve
over the slips. Gough sensed early on that Matabeleland, not far
from the land of the fuzzy wuzzies of Dad's Army's Corporal
Jones, did not like it up them, and he occasionally overdid the
short stuff on a pitch that made for a satisfying thump into
Alec Stewart's gloves.

Of equal importance, perhaps more so, was the private dust-up
for the third seamer's spot between Andrew Caddick and Ronnie
Irani. As shoot-outs go, it was not quite the OK Coral, but
Caddick did at least bring along a few bullets, while Irani
mostly fired blanks. Caddick's first wicket came from a long hop
and a mistimed pull, but he did run in with more purpose than
the pedestrian lope he had thus far unveiled on tour, and bowled
a number of genuinely good deliveries.

However, if Caddick has the class, Irani has more of what
sportsmen like to describe as 'bottle', and it is a shame that
England cannot dip into both of them to produce one cricketer.
Science advances so rapidly these day, that very soon it may be
possible. We can do away with physios, coaches, and motivational
gurus, and with a couple of flashes of the surgeon's knife,
bingo! A class all-rounder by the name of Rondy Iranddick.

Irani's presence in yesterday's side also says a lot about
England's traditionally defensive attitude. They think nothing
about gambling with only 14 men in the squad, but ask them to
make an adventurous selection, and do they sound the bugle? Do
they heck. They reach for the sandbags and take to the trenches.

They are already about to replace Jack Russell with Stewart, and
now they are tinkering with the thought of Irani at No 7, on no
real evidence that he can bowl people out, but because he will
provide (in theory) even more insurance with the bat.

They have never been that paranoid against Australia and the
West Indies, never mind Zimbabwe. This is why the other
significant performance yesterday came from Chris Silverwood,
who scarcely put a foot wrong. He made copious pots of tea (to
the satisfaction even of a 30-cup-a-day addict like Russell) and
as for his excursion on to the field with the Gatorade, what can
you say? He never spilled a drop.

This game was an ideal chance to see what Silverwood might have
to offer, but all that the player will get out of it is a set of
decent references should he ever seek employment in domestic
service.

Whether England get a win out of it is largely irrelevant, and
even though Matabeleland's 189 for nine is still four short of
the follow-on target, it will surely not be enforced.

Day 3 Report

Rain fails to wipe smile from Atherton's face

Martin Johnson in Bulawayo

THE Test and County Cricket Board's shrewd decision to send
England to southern Africa in the middle of the rainy season has
already demonstrated that conditions will alternate between
perfect for cricket and just right for wallowing hippos.

The local equivalent of Michael Fish never has anything as
mundane as an occasional shower on his weather chart. You either
fry or you drown. However, the violent electrical storm that
washed out play after tea on the penultimate day of England's
thus far one-sided match against Matabeleland conspicuously
failed to remove Michael Atherton's toothy grin.

As a resident of Manchester, it may simply have been the rain
making the captain feel at home, but more likely it was the rare
sight of a few runs next to his name on the scoreboard. England
would like to win this game, and still should, weather
permitting, but it is far more important to have their key
personnel in form with the international leg of this tour about
to get under way.

Atherton, as it happens, would have been the last person to
worry unduly about his poor start in Zimbabwe, given that his
inability to rise to the small occasion has now reached
Goweresque proportions. These days he finds it hard to pick up
his game for Lancashire, never mind a fixture at the Bulawayo
Athletic Club in front of an audience that could be accommodated
inside a telephone kiosk, and his first-class average in the
past two or three years has slipped from almost 50 to only just
over 40.

When it comes to Test matches, on the other hand, he runs on so
much neat adrenalin that five days of combat for England (on the
rare occasions that they manage to survive for five days) very
nearly wipes him out. None the less, yesterday's 55 off 105
deliveries will have perked him up nicely before Sunday's
one-day international at the neighbouring Queen's Club ground.

While Atherton does not necessarily need to score heavily to
maintain his confidence, other batsmen do, and the captain will
have been even happier with Graham Thorpe yesterday than he was
with himself. Thorpe's lack of time at the crease had begun to
make him fretful, and the Surrey left-hander's 65 (101 balls,
eight fours, one six) was comfortably the most significant
performance of the day.

Thorpe began like a man determined to be positive and yet his
poor start to the tour had left him full of negative thoughts.
Ergo, he used his feet to the spinners, but having created the
half-volley, he would give the ball a tame pat instead of a firm
thump. He was lucky when he survived a clear stumping chance
when on three, but by the end of his innings he was scoring
freely, looking something close to his best.

Atherton, by contrast, began his innings with carefree abandon,
frollicking around the crease as though his flannels had been
infiltrated by a column of African ants. He speared and sliced
just wide of or over the fielders, and threw in the occasional
extravagant air-shot for good measure. However, once he had
settled himself down, he took calculated measure of some largely
indifferent bowling, particularly in the absence of Heath Streak
from the home attack. Despite the fact that Streak was running
around in the field he was excused bowling duties on the grounds
of a minor knee niggle.

"It's a bid odd," said the England coach, David Lloyd, "because
Streak looked short of bowling to me in the first innings." Not
at all, said Zimabwe's player-coach, Dave Houghton, Streak was
raring to go for the internationals. Houghton, incidentally, is
no fan of the tourists' regimented fitness policies, and while
England's players have been running back to the hotel from the
ground, Houghton grabs a beer and a packet of fags from the bar
and heads for the snooker room.

England, however, are happy enough with their preparations, and
hard though it is to get too carried away against such modest
opponents (Matabeleland had just set off in chase of an
impossible 377 when the rain came), Lloyd proffered few
qualifying clauses in his overall expression of satisfaction.

"Atherton is probably still only 80 per cent with his back, but
he's a tough old customer, and is always cracking jokes and
laughing around the dressing room. We've never been worried
about his form.

"All the batsmen have now got runs and we're showing their
batsmen that we've got a bit of pace in our attack. They'll get
their share of short stuff. We are exactly where we thought we
would be at this stage of the tour."

Stirring stuff from a born optimist - but then again, only an
optimist would have taken the job.

Day 4 report


Matabeleland victory primes England for one-day series

By Martin Johnson in Bulawayo


VICTORY over Matabeleland does not so much represent taking a
scalp as stealing a bald man's wig, but these days England are
grateful to have anything to hang from their totem pole.

England now get down to the serious business of this tour, and
as they clamber into their pyjamas for tomorrow's first of three
one-day internationals against Zimbabwe, at least we can say
that their alarm clock has finally gone off.

Whether or not Matabeleland regard this as the most shameful day
in their history, and are about to burn a couple of rhino horns
and place the ashes in an urn, is not known, but we do know
Zimbabwe will fancy their chances of beating England in the
one-day series which continues after the two Test matches.

The posters are up around town, with a heavy emphasis on the
score- line between these two countries in one-day
internationals. Zimbabwe 2, England 1. All three were in
Australia, England losing the first two in Albury and Sydney,
and winning in Brisbane.

One thing that shouldn't be a problem for England tomorrow is
selection. The Management is making the customary noises about
"everyone being in contention", but the reality is that Jack
Russell, Philip Tufnell and Chris Silverwood have all been
earmarked for duties closer to the kitchen than the playing
area.

The one proviso is a back injury to Ronnie Irani, sustained in
mid-over during yesterday's 115-run victory. It is, said the
coach, David Lloyd, "bloody sore" and England will wait until
the morning to see whether Irani is up to bowling. In the
medical sense, that is, because in all other respects he is not
up to it at all.

England will reshuffle their batting order to make allowances
for the first 15-over fielding restriction, opening with Nick
Knight and Alec Stewart, with the captain, Michael Atherton,
coming in at No 3. If the pattern of the tour continues,
however, Atherton will still be facing a (white) ball with
plenty of shine left on it.

Zimbabwe will probably open with a "pinch-hitter" in Andy
Waller, who at the age of 37 needs to score in boundaries in
order to save his legs. England aren't playing one because they
haven't got one, but Knight and Stewart are no slouches if they
find the bowling to their liking.

If Irani is not passed fit, his replacement will probably be
Silverwood rather than Tufnell, who did not take a wicket
yesterday, but who nevertheless provided more encouraging
evidence that a tendency to erupt in Vesuvian proportions when
things are going against him is, for the moment, being stoically
held in check.

Tufnell spent most of the day vainly appealing for lbws and
bat-pad catches, often dropping to his knees and taking up a
position which suggested (particularly as it was a Friday) that
he had converted to Islam. On England's 1990-91 tour to
Australia Tufnell's less sanguine reaction led to an unsightly
altercation with umpire Peter McConnell, though it is not
generally known that McConnell had also been less than polite to
Tufnell. On one occasion Tufnell asked him how many balls were
left in the over, and McConnell replied: "Count them yourself
you Pommie *******."

England's entire XI, in fact, were of the opinion that they took
closer to 30 wickets than the 10 they required yesterday but
attempting to con the umpire is now so ingrained in the
professional cricketer that they often deserve everything they
don't get.

There was a time yesterday when Mark Dekker and Heath Streak,
who came in at the lofty position of No 4, were compiling a
stand of 156 for the third wicket. Dekker made 104 off 213
balls, Streak a powerful 67, and in mid-afternoon there was even
a chance that Matabeleland would score the 377 they needed to
win.

That disappeared when Streak was bowled off an inside edge by
Andrew Caddick, who otherwise bowled with no distinction. "I
want more pace from him," said Lloyd, "and I should be getting
it by now." Decoded, the coach thinks it about time Caddick
pulled his finger out.

The best performances came from Robert Croft, who has impressed
with both his bowling and his attitude, and in particular Darren
Gough, whose five second-innings wickets gave him a career best
aggregate of 11 for 139.

Finally, there is a new system of re-evaluating victory targets
in the event of rain in the one-dayers, which I would like to
explain, but would require so many words that it would have to
be serialised over the next 10 weeks.

Here is a (much prematurecised) sample clause. Side A makes 250
whereupon Side B is rained off for the equivalent of 20 overs
having been 75 for two from 20 overs. Multiply 250 by 0.357
(this figure somehow materialising from a formula involving the
percentage of runs from Side A's last 30 and last 10 overs, and
Side B's 20 completed overs) which equals 89.25. Take it away
from 250 (equals 160.75), round it up to 161, take away 75, and
there you have it. Eighty-six to win from 10 overs. Couldn't be
simpler, could it?


Source :: Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk)

<END> Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com)