ZCU President's XI v Indians

Reports by John Ward
2-4 October 1998

ZCU President's XI 156 all out (M A Vermeulen 46; A Kumble 5/35) Indians 138/2 (A D Jadeja 57*, R R Singh 34*)

The Indians enjoyed themselves on Sunrise Sports Club's inaugural day as a first-class venue, finishing only 18 runs behind with eight wickets in hand. The home team, captained by Warwickshire's Zimbabwean Trevor Penney, batted on winning the toss, but never came to grips with fine bowling from Anil Kumble on a very slow pitch.

The pitch was described by Penney as being 'not bad', but slower than most English pitches, and the lack of bounce made run-scoring difficult. Few of the side's young batsmen have much experience beyond the limited-over game, and neither the pitch nor Kumble's bowling was conducive to learning. Batting on it required patience and application, virtues ignored in one-day cricket, and this was beyond most of the home players.

Top scorer was Mark Vermeulen, recently returned from a successful season with Alderley Edge in Cheshire. He wisely took his time to play himself in and displayed some polished strokes, with several effortless cover drives being particularly impressive. Neil Johnson (21) used his feet well and kept the score ticking over, while Bryan Strang (15) contributed some typically lusty blows at number ten. The others were unable to break the shackles, with Trevor Madondo (14) and Gus Mackay (1) caught in the deep trying to do so.

Kumble, helped by Harbhajan Singh and Rahul Sanghvi (two wickets each), was more than most of the home batsmen could handle. While the pace bowlers soon decided that their best bet was to rely on line and length and wait for the batsmen to make a mistake, the spinners bowled with genuine guile and were never mastered. Perhaps the batsmen could have helped their cause, though, by treating the few loose balls more severely and paying more attention to pushing into the gaps for singles.

The Indians found scoring considerably easier, with the home bowlers showing less accuracy than the tourists had done. Bryan Strang, who had Sidhu lbw, and Mark Vermeulen, to whom Dravid played on, both took wickets as soon as they came on, but that was their team's lot for the day. Sidhu and Jadeja opened, and it is expected that they will do so again in the Test next week. Jadeja and Robin Singh both drove powerfully during the closing overs, and the small crowd will have to wait until tomorrow to see Tendulkar bat.

Day 2: A masterpiece by Tendulkar

President's XI 156 and 106/5

Indians 400/5 dec (A D Jadeja 61, R R Singh 47, S R Tendulkar 70, N R Mongia 70*, A Kumble 100*).

Statistically the highlight of the day was the unbroken sixth-wicket stand of 160 between Nayan Mongia and Anil Kumble, which included a century by the latter. For those who saw it, though, the abiding memory will be an innings of genius by Sachin Tendulkar.

Tendulkar was required at the crease early in the morning as Jadeja was caught in the slips after adding only four to his overnight score. He immediately showed his cricketing acumen by taking two runs to Everton Matambanadzo fielding in the deep; a less observant batsman would have taken only a single, but Tendulkar had already observed that Matambanadzo is at present unable to throw because of his injured shoulder. He then hit two powerful boundaries off Gus Mackay, an off-drive off the front foot, followed by a cover drive off the back foot; in the following over came a front-foot drive for four through extra cover. He was clearly out to enjoy himself, but kept the ball entirely on the ground except when aiming to hit it for six. His first six soared far beyond the midwicket boundary, a fierce pull off a not unduly short ball from Bryan Strang, which even the bowler had to applaud.

On 34, he slashed fiercely at the left-arm spin of Dirk Viljoen and was dropped by wicket-keeper Craig Gurr, the sort of chance which leaves the keeper with no hope of adjusting. It was a rare mistake by Gurr, whose keeping is of the Bob Taylor school of the immaculate, reliable and unobtrusive -- as indeed is his batting. Tendulkar immediately celebrated his escape with two more powerful boundaries and a six over the sightscreen.

Not since Brian Barbour memorably put to the sword a Natal attack led by Vintcent van der Bijl in the 1971/72 season has a batsman scored a first-class century before lunch in this country. Nothing seemed so certain that Tendulkar would be the successor to this feat, performed before he was born, when he tried to hit Ray Price for six over long-on, only to put the ball into the hands of the fielder there, appropriately Viljoen. His 70 contained 4 sixes and 10 fours and came off 53 balls in 68 minutes; the corresponding figures for reaching his fifty were 37 and 53.

Whatever followed was almost doomed to be a case of 'after the Lord Mayor's show', but in fact Mongia and Kumble took the opportunity to get some invaluable practice for the Test beginning on Wednesday. Kumble played the role of senior partner to add a century to his five wickets in the first innings, driving particularly well. The home side's pace attack found no life in the pitch, and the spinners were not good enough to trouble batsmen used to playing quality spin. The declaration came about half an hour before tea as soon as Kumble reached three figures, which coincidentally brought up the 400.

With the weather apparently settled, the home team appeared doomed to inevitable defeat, the only question being whether they could put up enough of a fight to force the tourists to bat again. Doug Marillier and Mark Vermeulen began with an useful opening partnership of 36, although both played some edgy shots. Thereafter only Dirk Viljoen, unbeaten on 21 at the close, showed real application. Neil Johnson and Trevor Penney both threw away their wickets trying to hit over the top, and at the close, about fifteen minutes early due to fading light, Gurr was doing his usual steady job in support of Viljoen.

Day 3: Indians wrap up match

ZCU President's XI 156 and 173;

Indians 400/5 dec.

Indians won by an innings and 71 runs

It took the Indians just under an hour to take the last five wickets in the President's XI second innings and bring the match to an end. Anil Kumble took the last four wickets in quick succession, thereby achieving the rare all-round feat of scoring a century and taking ten wickets in the same match, the first time this has been achieved on Zimbabwean soil.

At least the vibrant crowd of several hundred, mainly of Asian origin, had something to cheer, thanks to a lusty innings from Bryan Strang, who hit out boldly to score 48 off 39 balls in 36 minutes, mainly off Harbhajan Singh and Sanghvi. His defiant innings contained 2 sixes and 5 fours.

The remaining batsmen put up little fight. Dirk Viljoen was out almost immediately, trying to sweep Harbhajan before he got his eye in; the ball came from the top edge of his bat and rebounded off his helmet to silly point. It is disappointing that such a dedicated and talented player should continually fail to do himself justice in first-class cricket; part of the problem is that so little first-class cricket is played in Zimbabwe that players like Viljoen do not gain the necessary experience in building an innings.

Craig Gurr for the second time, batting at number seven, remained undefeated, on 13. His batting, like his wicket-keeping, is unobtrusive but very reliable, and with more experience he will doubtless be able to add more strokes to his concentration. He has been out of cricket for several years, but was 'discovered' by Dave Houghton while playing in a friendly match and persuaded to return. Already he is perhaps next in line for a Test place should current national wicket-keeper Andy Flower suffer an injury.

After Strang departed, bowled trying to hit Kumble over the leg- side field, the unorthodox leg-spinner wrapped up the tail in no time at all. Gus Mackay, on his return to the pavilion after being given out lbw, said it was the fastest delivery he had ever received from a medium-pacer!

Probably the national selectors will have learned little from this match. Gurr and Vermeulen alone did much with the bat; the pace bowlers found little joy in a deadly slow pitch; and the spinners did not turn the ball sharply enough to bother the tourists' batsmen. It did demonstrate the need of more first-class cricket in the country to give Zimbabwean batsmen the opportunity of learning how to build an innings.