Zimbabwe exceed expectations

It was not quite 30 days that shook the cricketing world but the last month of matches in Zimbabwe have at least opened its eyes to a wider truth. Zimbabwe, the team who had gone a full year without a Test and the lowest-ranked Full Member on the ODI and T20 charts, still have the potential, promise and passion to play cricket at its highest level.

Over the course of one Test and seven ODIs Zimbabwe played between August 9 and September 7, they demonstrated steady improvement, increased understanding of how to operate in their own conditions and their supporter numbers swelled. All three things were in doubt in the tumultuous lead-up to the tournament, when the cracks in their cricketing structures widened and the game was expected to fall into them.

Days before Zimbabwe geared up to host their only cricket of 2014, tectonic plates shifted in their administration. Peter Chingoka, the chairman who had been in charge for more than two decades, stepped down; national coach Andy Waller was shifted out into an overseeing role; the captaincy was split between Brendan Taylor and Elton Chigumbura; and Wayne James, the only member of the three-man selection panel with first-class experience, was removed from the committee.

With instability and uncertainty woven into the fabric of their game, motivation levels frayed and were only restored when Zimbabwe took a Test they were expected to lose inside three days, late into the fourth. It was there that Zimbabwe's groundstaff's allegiances were underlined. They presented a dehydrated surface which would deny the opposition the pace, bounce and carry they preferred and slow run-scoring to little more than a stroll. That set the tone for the entire tour.

Cricket would be be played with industriousness rather than exclamation marks, probably the best way for a team with limitations, like Zimbabwe, to approach more fancied opposition. That may sound unattractive for viewers but Zimbabwe's fans disagreed. At both the Harare Sports Club and Queens Club in Bulawayo, fans turned up, often later in the day, to watch, sing and dance. Many said these were the best crowds they had seen in Zimbabwe in years and that was despite not having that much to cheer from their own team.

Even with tailor-made conditions, Zimbabwe could not keep up with two of the best sides in the global game. They were whitewashed in the three-match ODI series against South Africa and won only one of their four triangular series matches but zoom in and the picture is not so bleak. Zimbabwe controlled portions of every game they were involved in and they unearthed players and combinations which will serve them well in future with a bit of work.

The batting department is the area which needs the most polishing. Zimbabwe had no centurion from any of the seven ODIs they played but they averaged one fifty a match, with seven half-centuries. Four of those knocks, two from Hamilton Masakadza and one each from Taylor and Chigumbura, came from batsmen stationed in the top four. The other three came from the middle order courtesy Sean Williams twice and Chigumbura. Tellingly, none were scored by the opening pair.

Between Vusi Sibanda, Tino Mawoyo, Richmond Mutumbami and Sikandar Raza, Zimbabwe could not conjure up one solid start. Sibanda continues to fail to live up to his billing and there is a renewed mercilessness in benching him while Mutumbami is better suited to the middle order. Mawoyo is a strong candidate but needs to speed up at the same rate as he shows caution but it is Raza who will worry Mangongo the most.

That he is capable is obvious. Raza is a strong strokemaker off both front and back foot but lacks the temperament to turn starts into substantial scores. Five of Raza's six innings yielded between 22 and 35 runs and each time he got in he threw it away. Raza offered catches like a generous neighbour to trick-or-treating kids on Halloween and left Zimbabwe in a far scarier position than they would have wanted to be in as a result.

Like many teams who do not play regularly, Zimbabwe struggle to put an innings back on track if it starts halfway off the rails. That may be why they failed in five of the six chases they embarked on and never managed a score of over 250. That they crossed the 200 mark three times was an achievement, albeit it a small one.

Their bowling numbers were better, particularly because they were without their best bowler, Tinashe Panyangara, who was suspended for the bulk of the triangular. Of a possible 70 wickets on offer, Zimbabwe took 47 but only their bowled opposition out twice. Both times, it was South Africa they managed to pick through, not having done that since the 1999 World Cup, but they have never taken all ten wickets in an ODI against Australia.

Zimbabwe's attack has no poison-tipped pen, particularly among the pacemen. While Brian Vitori is tipped as the wicket-taker, he struggles with his consistency. Without the firepower of the two teams they played against they make do with craftsmen who dish up variations or the discipline to wait for a mistake. Panyangara is one example, Chatara another.

That also leaves Zimbabwe overly reliant on spinners, which may not serve them well in all conditions no matter how good the slow bowlers are. But there can be no denying they are a valuable asset. Prosper Utseya is only 29 years old, already has a decade of experience behind him and perhaps has the same number of years ahead of him. John Nyumbu's effervescence and energy spills over into everything he does, which he also manages to do fairly accurately. Sean Williams turns the ball. In that trio, Zimbabwe have the makings of a good attack and Chigumbura is learning how to use them.

His appointment as leader would have surprised some and although he started by appearing all at sea, Chigumbura did his bit with the bat and developed his own strategies as the series went on. Importantly, he is a mainstay in the Zimbabwe team and his pleasant nature acts as a buffer between the players and a coach who has been accused of being overly harsh. Some of Steve Mangongo's methods, like dropping Taylor, were questionable but he should be praised for what he got out of his team in such a short time.

The leash around Zimbabwe cricket's neck has always been that after a brief period of cricket they return to a fixture drought which pulls back any progress made and stunts their growth. This time the landscape is not quite as bleak. Zimbabwe's A side will be in Bangladesh from next week and their senior team will follow them for a full tour in October and November. The visit will mark the first time Zimbabwe will feature in a three-Test series in more than a decade, which will be followed by five ODIs in preparation for next year's World Cup.

Other teams will have many more matches in conditions which are more similar to what they will encounter at the World Cup but Zimbabwe have learned not to complain about the hand they have been dealt. Whether that will be enough for them to put in a performance that will stun the cricketing world next year remains in doubt but it may be sufficient to force eyes to open a little wider.