So the champions trophy begins

[butchering lee]

and cricinfo previews the opening rounds:


"
The Preview by S Rajesh

October 7, 2006







Six teams have already made it to the main stage of the Champions Trophy, and over the next one week, six qualifying matches will decide which two teams out of Sri Lanka, West Indies, Bangladesh and West Indies will join those six in the quarter-final stage.
"


always nice to be a zimbo - with a slight inferiority complex (cricketwise that is!) anyway.

kick us when we're down why don't you Senyor Rajesh

[butchering lee]

si, and with respect to his clear ability esp. in the longer form, i'm glad they've dropped duffin and am still holding out for rinke. a real shame we've lost sibanda - one of the few recent promises!


mufumbisi's started nicely though and with taylor is upping the RR - good luck to them!!


ok so my wish of luck was stomped upon

[Mike]

Commiserations BL. Zimbabwe won the toss and chose to bat first. The ball is swinging and seaming and Zimbabwe have lost 6 wickets in 16 overs including two runouts.

9.4 Bradshaw to Taylor, OUT, shortish again, pushed off the back foot to Chanderpaul at short mid-off again and just sets off for the run, utter madness when the balls going right to a fielder, and Chanderpaul swoops in and fires in a direct hit at the nonstriker's end, Taylor is out by a country mile and just keeps on running back to the hut, stupid run, what was he thinking?

15.2 Bradshaw to Rinke, OUT, harakiri at Motera! Drifts to middle and off, the straighter ball, works that to midwicket and sets off for the run, Chigumbura sends him back, but the fielder is too smooth here and fires in a throw that catches the big boy Rinke just short of his crease, another run out for Zimbabwe

[butchering lee]

running out of patience with rinke - another run out for him (maybe he thinks we won't be able to judge his batting if he keeps getting run out)

[Mr Hutt]

66/7 right now ZIM batting.... im quite dissapointed actually i thought the ZImbabwaens would put up a much better fight than this.

[butchering lee]

me too! i'm very disappointed indeed, i wasn't expecting to win (not really even to go that close considering WI played pretty well in thier recent tri-series) but this is horrible and added to flawed batting you have run outs

[butchering lee]

about as comprehensive as it gets - very disappointing, they're better than this and they'll have taken nothing but misery from this match

[Paoli]

Horrible horrible. I thought we could put a fight up. What is interesting about the last two years is IF we had've kept the same squad that played Sri Lanka, and held that together for two years, we'd be competitive by now.

Forget Streak, Blignaut, Flower, Carlisle, etc...it's these blokes that hold the keys to the future. Technically we lack alot. Mufambisi has the worst footwork bar none, our running between wickets is shambolic and our bowling isn't much better!

Oh well!

[Mike]

The Zimbabwe players were probably overawed by the occasion and when early wickets fell the middle-order panicked and caused those two needless run-outs. Apparently, umpire Rudi Koertzen was sporting a beard in the match.

[butchering lee]

Originally Posted by Paoli

Horrible horrible. I thought we could put a fight up. What is interesting about the last two years is IF we had've kept the same squad that played Sri Lanka, and held that together for two years, we'd be competitive by now.

Forget Streak, Blignaut, Flower, Carlisle, etc...it's these blokes that hold the keys to the future. Technically we lack alot. Mufambisi has the worst footwork bar none, our running between wickets is shambolic and our bowling isn't much better!!

it's true, such a shame that they don't keep anyone very long (i think there's something in them being overawed - there are a few "oldtimers" who simply capitulated: taylor, masakadza, matsikenyeri..) - i keep the faith but it's very, very trying at times!

i haven't seen mufambisi actually play - he seems to keep his wkt slightly longer and make more runs than sibanda used to (when he started out) and sibanda used to be acurately described as clueless. through simple perserverence he's improved - let's hope some of these are kept long enough to benefit from extended exposure.

everything was off today. dropped catches, run outs, byes... but is the bowling really that bad? - it's clearly not great but they started out well (i follow the commentary as i have limited access to games) beating the batsmen occasionally, not giving away to many runs, even when gayle tore into them they kept enough cool to produce balls just good enough to induce chances (tho' gayle was probably to blame..) which is all you can ask for when guys start hitting out. like i said - i can't actually watch these games so i don't know.

nice to see you back commentating on zim games paoli - even if i know there's little to nothing good to say