Zimbabwe Tour of South Africa

[Richie Benauds Love Child]

Any bets on him beating the test record for the fastest 100 ?????

[Teatime FatCat]

Not anymore. However it is a total farce that Kallis and Hayden can set records against this kind of rubbish, it belittles the acheivements of Sobers and Lara et al. How can you have a guy bowling leg-spin who has picked up all the wickets, but is going for 11 an over.

I'm right with Dave Houghton, give 'em A-Team status, and let 'em play Namibia and Kenya until they start to beat them comfortably. I'm a bit annoyed and my whiskers are bristling!

This is a sham, 'cos I rate Taibu, Chigumbura, Mazicanaries (or whatever he's called) and want them to do well, but this is just too big a step - and Kallis should disown his record, it is after all known as Test Cricket - and this is no test at all.

[Ernest]

Kallis fastest 50 ever.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/shared...l/scorecard.stm

J Kallis rubbed salt in Zimbawes wounds after they had been skittled out for 54, kallis got his 54 in just 25 balls.

Yes kallis was out for 54, but what does this performance mean?.

Heath Streak has took a hammering with 90 being taken from 13 overs.

Is he the greatest all rounder?.

[John]

Just watching the highlights of todays play. Very poor stuff from Zim.
I don't no where I stand as what should be done as who Zim should play. But all I know cricket should be giving the likes of Zim a helping hand.

[John]

Zimbabwe fight back good to see. They are exposing the SA bowling.

[Occasional Fan]

And lost by an innings and 21 runs inside two days. What a disaster for a once proud cricketing nation.

[jot1]

I don't agree that Kallis' record for the fastest 50 doesn't mean anything. He took a lot of that off of Streak's bowling and he is considered one of the best.

[vvvrulz]

This is ridiculous, with Streak and Blignaut, they really shouldn't be this embarrasing. It seems to me that Zimbabwe, even with their rebel players, weren't much of a force anyway.

[Paoli]

They were more of a force, and vvv, it is loudoucris to think that Streak could be back to his best after 12 months out of international cricket.

Graeme Cremer, when i saw his stats of 3-86 i was impressed...Not so when i found out it was off 9 overs.

[Zainub]

I hate it when people jump up to conclusions like this...just because Zimbabwe are doing this poorly now doesn't mean that they were never a decent side...people's memory can sometimes be annoyingly short term...

I'd like to do a short recap from the top of mind mind of how Zimbabwe performed just before the whole controversy over Heath Streak being captain and the whole rebel saga started

World Cup : Zimbabwe reached the supex sixes (England, Pakistan and West Indies all didn't) (I know , I know every one will say the only reached there because of the points they got from the ENG-ZIM game which England didn't play, but a fact is a fact, they qualified and the other so called "better" teams didn't)

Sharjah Cup (immediately after the world cup): Zimbabwe reached the finals (where they were well beaten by Pakistan) but before that they knocked out world cup semifinalists Kenya and Sri Lanka out of the competetion beating them both, a guy called Douglus Mourillier (Sorry for wrong spelling) made a real impression with the bat, making a 100 against Kenya and also making afew good scores against the other sides

tour to England: although they lost the 2 test match series against England 2-0 they did beat England in the opening game of the Nat West Series one-day tournament and didn't do badly over all even though they didn't qualify for the finals. Heath Streak on a few occasions almost singlehandedly threatenned to win them games

Tour to Australia: Well well, yes, Hayden did make that world record score but their batters again did very well, Heath Streak was absolute class, and Staurt Carlisile also got a 100, and yes, they did take the test to the last day, even the WACA test if I'm correct (and considering the relative strengths and weaknesses of the two sides even that is an achievement)

vs WI at home: Although they eventually lost 1-0 they really played well in the 1st test, Ray Price got 10 wickets in the first test and the home side came within 1 wicket of winning the test but wicket keeper Ridley Jacobs denied them victory, in the second test they were treated with a Lara special but over all Zimbabwe didn't do that badly, with more promise showing in the form of Mark Vermulen making a test hundred, there were hundreds also for Heath Streak, his first in test cricket, and the obvious good bowling of Ray Price, with a bit of luck they could have easily drawn this series 1-1

vs B'desh at home: Won convincingly, 1-0

vs Aus and India in the VB Series 2004: once came very close to beating India, and in one other game also gave Australia a decent run for their money, in that tour the likes of Sean Ervine (who made a 100 vs. India) made a real impression of being really talented and capable, over all they didn't do that badly, and as usual lots of promise for the future

Zimbabwe really were a decent side just before the whole controversey started, and on their day they could beat most test teams when the had guys like Flower and Streak playing well with rythym and consistency Now they are struggling because some of these guys they have picked just aren't good enough I'm hopeful that with likelihood of more "rebels" coming back they will improve