da realbet： Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock smiled at the Harare Sports Clubpitch, and the pitch smiled back at them
John Ward17-Nov-1999Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock smiled at the Harare Sports Clubpitch, and the pitch smiled back at them. They were quitecompatible. The only wish now of the South African pace pair wasfor their captain to win the toss so they could bowl on it whenit was at its most co-operative – and Lady Luck smiled on themall.This is a major complaint of Zimbabwe players. “Other countriesprepare pitches to give their players home advantage, so whycan’t we?” they understandably cry. The Harare Sports Clubpitch, with quite a bit of grass left on it, favoured the SouthAfrican pace attack far more than it did Zimbabwe’s comparativelyinexperienced seamers. Our batsmen, so lacking in practice inthe longer game recently, needed a good sound batting pitch toregain their confidence. Instead they were doomed to struggleall the way against the two most successful pace bowlers in theworld during the past two years.The way Zimbabwe have been playing recently, they would have lostthis match heavily whatever happened, whatever pitch they wereplaying on. This is not to denigrate the team; if they were ableto play with the same spirit and fire that they had shown in theWorld Cup match against the same opposition in Chelmsford whoknows what could have happened? At their best they can take onany team in the world with confidence. Without that confidence,they have had a disastrous time this season. Things were lookingbetter in the Bloemfontein Test, and had the umpires always beenable to make the right decisions they would not have lost by asmuch as an innings. The improvement would probably havecontinued in Harare. It was like kicking a man when he’s down toexpect the team to play on the Harare pitch as it was then.Curator Charles Wallace has come under a lot of criticism thisseason for his pitches, especially the one-day pitch againstAustralia, on which two matches were played. Again the excessiveamount of early life played into the hands of the Australian paceattack – because, needless to say, Zimbabwe lost the toss on boththose occasions. Mr Wallace prides himself on producing pitcheswith pace and life, and when he gets it right it is a beauty, asit was for the Test against Australia, and that against Indialast year. But if there are any problems in preparation, or heleans a little too far in that direction, Zimbabwe are in serioustrouble. As former national captain David Lewis said during thematch, a pitch on which the captain winning the toss is eager tobowl is not good enough for Test cricket.On the day before the South African Test, Dave Houghton and AndyFlower were looking with concern at the amount of grass left onthe pitch. Mr Wallace admitted it would not be as good as theone against Australia, and he dared not take off more grass forfear of it crumbling. Things clearly had not gone quiteaccording to plan in the preparation, and it must be admittedthat he has a very difficult task at present, with the worststill to come. No Test ground apart from Harare Sports Club hasever hosted four Test matches in a season before, let alone fourin the space of two months. And that excludes five one-dayinternationals to be played on the ground.Zimbabwe are still unable to have much say in when touring teamsvisit the country; we are still in a position of having to begrateful they come at all. Unbalanced programmes are likely toremain a fact of life, unless we can one day produce one of themost brilliant and attractive teams in the world – and even thenit takes years to build a reputation. It is at times like thisthat we may wish there were other centres in Zimbabwe able tohold Test matches, or that Harare had a second Test ground onwhich to play, as do London and Colombo. If the Harare SportsClub pitch cannot handle all the international matches yet tocome, then the Zimbabwe Cricket Union will have some hardthinking to do in future.Once they had been inevitably put in to bat, Zimbabwe inevitablystruggled. They certainly should never have been bowled out for102, their lowest ever Test match total, but the South Africanbowling was brilliant and the Zimbabweans just did not have theform or confidence to handle the attack. Even the weatherconspired against Zimbabwe. Rain washed out most of the firstday, meaning that the home side had to go in again early on thesecond morning — and half an hour earlier at that, to make upfor lost time — and face the usual early life in the pitch allover again. Only Neil Johnson reached 20, and even he did notlook in good form. Nobody managed to come to grips with thebowling and conditions, a sign once again of low confidence asmany have shown their ability to handle such situations in thepast.One-day batting techniques were also very much in evidence. Toomany of the experienced players, who have coped with the fastestbowlers in the world in the past, were failing to movesufficiently across their stumps to get behind the line,resulting in many slip catches. It is noticeable that the leastexperienced of the batsmen, Trevor Gripper, got into line betterthan most. Significantly, he has yet to play in a one-dayinternational! The others have played up to 23 one-day matchesin the seven months before the arrival of the Australians,including county warm-up matches and those against the AustralianCricket Academy. They are still very much in one-day mode andsome serious reprogramming is needed — as they themselvesrecognise.The angled bat was also much in evidence, partly as a result offailure to get across and behind the line of the ball.Slow-motion replays showed one batsman after another dismissedcaught off an angled bat, or by means of variation bowled orplaying on through the gate left by an angled bat away from thebody. Even our most technically correct batsmen have got intobad habits that will take time to eliminate — and that time doesnot exist with the Sri Lankan series upon us without a break.The South African batsmen, like the Australians, showed clearlyhow to bat in a Test match. Our bowling may not be fearsome,especially in the absence of Heath Streak and Adam Huckle, butthey did generally bowl line and length, concentrating justoutside the off stump. It was just a pity it took them a whileto settle down to length especially, as Jacques Kallis inparticular was waiting for the short ball and rarely failed topull it for four. Once the bowlers learned to pitch it up andbowl straight to him, they slowed his rate of scoringconsiderably; but, fine Test batsman that he is, he simply bidedhis time and kept concentrating and accumulating.Mark Boucher was another who was superb at punishing the shortball, and he too showed fine temperament and a wise game plan infighting his way through patches where he became almost becalmedby the accurate bowling and brilliant fielding. The arrival ofKlusener at the crease seemed to inspire him after a particularlydogged spell, and he almost matched his powerful partner strokefor stroke during a brief gaudy partnership of 44 in eight overs.Only after lunch did the Zimbabweans begin to wilt. The bowlerslost their accuracy and there were some uncharacteristic fieldinglapses as Boucher and Pollock took full advantage. Andy Flowertook advantage of the drinks break to pull his team together, butthey made heavy work of the tail end of the South Africaninnings. Against Australia, Steve Waugh and Damien Fleming added114 for the eighth wicket; now we had an eighth-wicket stand of148, a new South African record. Pollock eventually fell, butthe last pair were causing annoyance when rain halted play againfor the day.It is debatable whether Zimbabwe would have preferred to bat foran hour before the close that night or go in with the pitchshowing its usual early-morning life the next day. Neither wasrecommended, but they got the latter. Then Grant Flower,continuing to suffer the bad luck that seems to dog batsmenstruggling for form, received as his second delivery a virtuallyunplayable ball from Donald.The traditional ‘ball from hell’ is said to be the first thatShane Warne bowled in a Test match in England, in 1993. Itpitched outside Mike Gatting’s leg stump and whipped right acrosshim to hit his off stump. Donald’s delivery to Flower cannothave been any better. It started from the bowler’s arm, headingat least two feet outside off stump. It swung in, pitchedperhaps a foot outside off stump, and then ripped in to knock outhis leg stump. All at twice the speed of Warne’s celebrateddelivery. It was an appalling blow from which the Zimbabweaninnings never recovered.All came out looking to play positively rather than attempt theself-defeating exercise of blocking their way through, althoughTrevor Gripper has had some success at that in the past. Sodominant were the South Africans, though, that they could neversucceed for long. Alistair Campbell looked in fine form, relaxedand confident, but he was cut down on 25 by an umpiring error,the ball coming off his pad to be snapped up close on the offside with the umpire believing it had hit the bat in between.Gavin Rennie made Zimbabwe’s top score of the match, 34, bypositive methods. Usually known for some rather dogged displaysas opener, he has been put down the order to accommodate Gripper.Number seven is never an easy spot for a specialist batsmen, butRennie has had to yield place to the senior men who hold on tothe preferential spots in the middle order. He was particularlysevere on Adams, hitting him hard and high several times andproviding good encouragement for the despairing afternoon crowduntil he tried it once too often and holed out on the boundary.Then the match was soon over.It was Zimbabwe’s worst result since gaining Test status and oneof their worst ever, although some will remember the loss by aninnings and 292 runs to Peter May’s powerful 1956/57 touring teamon the same ground. But there is only one way to go now aftertouching rock-bottom and that is up. It just remains to be seenhow soon the ‘up’ will occur.