When India and Sri Lanka landed in Zimbabwe, they were told that they had only come to put themselves on display while the Zimbabwean cricketers do some job shadowing. You know, so they can build their skills and put it in their resumes for the other cricket nations to review and decide whether they want to play against them. Except, the Indians and Lankans were so bad at their own profession that the Zimbabweans decided to stop the shadowing and do their work for them. And what a fine job they did!
I don't care if both the teams are missing key players and Dilshan is captaining Sri Lanka. Even an Indian or Sri Lankan second stream team should be able to beat Zimbabwe. Simply because no matter how inadequate the development phase of cricket is in these two countries, they can't be worse than the politicially motivated Zimbabwe. Yet, Zimbabwe have managed to produce players that can whoop Sri Lankan and Indian ass. Comfortably too.
Also, how about the fact that neither India nor Sri Lanka have sent their second strings to Zimbabwe? They just sent experimental teams, without their stars. And most of those lab rats have played in the first XI. I don't know how to exactly describe them. Err...oh yes! India and Sri Lanka after the retirement of Tendulkar, Sehwag, Sangakara and Mahela! Big, bright future boys!
I also don't care if this is only Zimbabwe and nobody is watching. Here's why: will this go down to the records? Yes it will. Will everybody know that India got knocked out by Zimbabwe in a tri-series? Yes they will. Will the Zimbabweans celebrate like mad and consider this a succesful tour (specially if they win today)? Yes they will. Will there be a trophy involved? Yes there will. So guess what? IT MATTERS. Even if you were involved in a tri-series with Afghanistan it matters.
They are putting their all in it. Why the fuck won't you? Oh, because you are India and Sri Lanka. You have been doing is for a while now. God forbid you should take a tri-series in Zimbabwe seriously. You have ICC rankings for fuck's sakes
I don't know about you but I can't wait for the final game today. Of course, now that I have written about Zimbabwe there is a 99.99% chance that they will lose.
8 comments:
Any team that has Taylor and Mazakadza, all-rounders like Blignaut and Chiggy both of whom can smash it into the orbit and the miser Price can surprise any team in one-day cricket.
Taibu isn't a bad cricket either.
India used six debutants, while the Zim side had plenty of experience, and that's what worked for them in the end!
Rishabh, I don't think all 6 debutants played at once? And what experience as you talking about? They have been playing for a team for a while yes, but they've hardly played 'proper' sides.
No, they didn't play all at once, but cricket is a team game and even two debutants every match makes a difference! Add to that the fact that most of our recent international cricket has been against Sri Lanka, so the players with games under their belt haven't played too many varied attacks either!
Zimbabwe had Taylor, Taibu, Chigumbura and Utseya who have played 100+ ODIs, with Masakadza's 95, and then Blignaut with 54 but who's been in and out for 13 years! Price debuted 10 years ago too. Surely a bunch with this much experience can trump a side full of under-25s who are merely being experimented with!
Anybody else having a mad cricket crush on ZIM? Mine has been growing since the WT20.
I furthermore proclaim that Charles Coventry looks like a narky, mental version of Daniel Vettori. He does!!!!!
Also, Cremer.
Cheers!
~ Play For Country Not For Self ~
Wes, I think everyone is having amad crush on Zimbabwe at the moment ... and not only because they dislike John Howard as much as the rest of us.
Zimb can become a competitive unit but they need one more quick bowler and just hope that temperamental Blignuat can get his form back. He is a very exciting player for sure.
Rishabh, I'm sorry but not stretching to reach the crease, not telling the umpire about the bowling powerplay and deciding to bat after winning the toss are not because of debutants. And Zim mostly played against Kenya, BD and sometimes SA in the past 2 years. Just numbers don't matter, the opponent matters too. SL is definitely much better than Kenya :P.
Wes and Sid, only because we are tired of seeing the same teams win a.k.a Australia!
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