A new butterfly to emerge?

[butchering lee]

i´m deliberately gonna provoke here

i´m really pleased with yesterday´s result. i´m liking the look of panyangara more each time. but other than his performance (and that of taylor) it was left to ebrahim who is by all accounts a veteran. of course nkala did well enough with the ball to get 3 but even he is not new blood. Mupariwa also made some sort of a claim getting two on debut in such circumstance.

quote:Originally posted by ...
Last time in Dambulla, England was all out for 88 (lost by 10 wicket) against a similar strength Sri Lanka team. Here we have 5 of the same players and some of the brightest new Sri Lankan faces. This is a very strong Sri Lanka team & Zimbabwe did well, considering the circumstances.

what this is doing is giving these guys a look at int. cricket - they´re not up to it yet but they´re trying hard and showing all those "unwell-wishers" that they´re not hapless (as described by some writer)

i´m merely trying to keep it real here and don´t want to go too far in the other direction (to that of the above mentioned writer). so, a recap on Dambulla: vaas and murali bowled 20 overs for 30 runs and got 4 wkts and Jayasuriya and Kaluwitharana wrapped up the innings- none played yesterday - also SL are definitly better at home.

still, not to forget that Kulasekara, Fernando and chandana payed in both games and bowled 26 overs for 55 runs and picked up 5 wkts. between them that day.

so of course this is still a pretty strong SL side which is why it was ultimately an easy enough win - i´m not looking even for real competition out of these guys (age, experience and circumstances have already ruled that out) i´m looking at the individuals and weighing up who could replace the wayward bowling of (blignaught/friend) and the age of (price)- or on the batting front the not particulary talented (gripper) or the aging (carlisle/flower/ even wishart).

a new look team with a healthy quota of non-white players would be something to look forward too. so, these are guys in that category i´d like to see get central contracts and support - there is some ability here and given time they wil be included in a team (who are mainly "of colour") that is truly competative - and eventually picked on merit. there is nowhere else for zim to go but here IMHO.


Ebrahim
Matsikenyeri (still hope if surrounded by experience and support)
Maregweda
+*Taibu
Nkala (to be developed as an allrounder)
Hondo
Mupawira (only one performance - but in this situation...)
Panyangara

not forgetting the likes of Vermeulan, Ervine, Ewing and Rogers who have all had some success and are exciting youngsters too (if you´re a zimbo).

NB. just noticed its still the usual bits and pieces players we´ve become accustomned to in zim sides

[butchering lee]

sorry to plagerise your work (the title) -RMJ but it painted such a nice picture.

[Richard Jenkins]

Your very welcome Butchering lee.
I've just read that the rebels want to play agian on cricinfo see

http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/C...28APR2004.html

Nice post!

I hope it is a spectacular butterfly that emerges!

I thought that Sri Lanka had many blushes spared, and if they play like this again we could win. Bowled really well, and to score 150 with the team was very pleasing.

[butchering lee]

saw that RMJ - good news!

i know there is a saying that in a compromise everyone loses - but sometimes common sense prevails.

out of curiosity - cause i love your balanced voice on this zim part of the forum - you refer to "we" but your teams at the top right corner say england and kent. Is zim your fav. second choice?

[Richard Jenkins]

Its the royal we!!
I do support Kent England first I suppose then Zim. I can't really explain why, I've only been to Africa once (Tunisia) , I'm as white as a sheet and i suppose i'm a middle class profesional; So Why Zimbabwe. Well i guess it's "sheepeshly "the underdog element, and any player who can perform in the face of adversity has my vote.
At University we studied Uganda and Kenya and eastern Africa intensively,(political geography was believe it or not an option in studying ecology and the ecology of the savannah and the Chiclid fishes of the great African lakes intersted me as did the history of Zimbabwe; I can remember Joshua Nkomo and Ndabaningi Sithole and Bishop Muzorewa (first name escapes me was it Abraham?/Abel?Adam?)from university,And the division between the Shona and matalabe people was something i remember studying (at the safe distance of university rather than at the front line).Just after all that Idi Amin was chucked out so i recall. And I'm a political animal at heart, so a politician willing to shoot his opponents is a "bit dodgy"!! in my book. Zim has 600% inflation as we speak so economically has a hard future , and more people die in sub saharan Africa of HIV than in wars, and famine combined.
I toyed with the idea of teaching in Kenya/ Africa when younger, but chickened out .

[butchering lee]

"a politician willing to shoot his opponents is a "bit dodgy"!! in my book." - lol RMJ (love the "bit dodgy" bit).

cheers for the support - this is pretty much our site and it´s always a pleasure.

an interesting post by the way. - don´t know his first name. i know most by surnames only.

[Richard Jenkins]

It's Abel, but I had to drag out my Uni notes, blow off the dust and decipher my scrawl.!!

I really like this site, I feel realy comfortable here, not something i ever felt on BBc cos I always felt the spite of some idiot saying something outragous was just around the corner, and I can't see it being tolerated here! happily; thanks for the chats, its all good stuff!

[Miles Cooper]

Butchering Lee,

While I agree that there were many positives to be taken out of yesterday's spirited performance by the young inexperienced Zinmbos, one has to bear in mind that Sri Lanka were without Murali, Jayasuriya, Vaas...to name but three. That said, the only way was up after the 3rd ODI, right?

[butchering lee]

miles - it was by no means a slight at sri lankan ability. a very weakened side still won well inside the alloted overs.

this was more of a reaction to the headline words - "hapless zimbabwe" or "second string SL team".

it was not quite second string - about 1/2 would be 1st choices. and zim are not exactly hapless, which to me suggests golf with a cricket bat.

in truth there were precious few positives for zim as they were clearly out of their depth again (to a largely second string SLankan team)

[Miles Cooper]

I didn't for a minute take it as a slight to SLability - believe me. I have every sympathy with the Zim situation.