Zimbabwe President's XI v Australians, day 2 match report

Bulawayo, close of second day:

Two fine attacking innings, by Trevor Madondo of the President's XI and Steve Waugh of Australia, were the highlights of the second day's play between the two teams, which finished with the tourists 274 runs ahead with eight second-innings wickets standing.

Trevor Gripper and Mark Vermeulen continued this morning from their overnight score of 25 for one, against the bowling of the immaculate Glenn McGrath and the somewhat more erratic Matthew Nicholson. Vermeulen took his score to 15 before, playing forward to McGrath, bowling accurately but within himself, he got a thin outside edge to present wicket-keeper Ian Healy with a regulation catch. The score was now 36 for two.

Trevor Madondo came in with more aggressive intent than his predecessors, but looked capable and a more mature player than when he made his Test debut eighteen months ago. Gripper looked as solid as ever, taking most of McGrath before shattering the latter's hitherto economical figures by turning him for three through midwicket. Nicholson, in need of bowling practice, bowled four wides down the leg side to Gripper; after a bye, Madondo cracked him away handsomely off the back foot backward of point for four.

After this Steve Waugh brought on Shane Warne for his first bowl of the tour. He caused the batsmen little trouble and tended to stray down leg side. Madondo was severe on Fleming when he came on playing two more of his cracking back-foot square drives to the point boundary in his first over, and then swinging him for a glorious high six over long-on. Gripper, settling in, began working the ball around more readily for ones and twos.

Madondo continued to score mainly in boundaries, his trademark being that back-foot stroke backward of point. Certain disciplinary problems last season did him no favours at all, and probably the authorities will want to be sure he has matured as a person before promoting him to the Test team again. Soon after reaching his fifty, with another such boundary, he misjudged a ball from Fleming which did not get up as much as he expected and hit him on the helmet; play was stopped for a few minutes while he recovered, but he responded by cracking the next ball through extra cover for four.

It was not a perfect innings: he was beaten a few times and dropped on 55 low down at mid-on when he mistimed a pull. He did not profit from the error, though, skying another pull off McGrath for the wicket-keeper to take, running towards square leg. He made 59 off 102 balls, with 12 fours and a six, and the President's XI were 126 for three.

Stuart Carlisle, his international place in the balance, came in and immediately looked positive and purposeful. He played himself in, and then on-drove McGrath smoothly for four. Then came the lunch interval, with the score on 140 for three, Gripper still there with his dogged 32 and Carlisle on 9.

Nicholson came on for a wild and woolly over after lunch which included a wide outside off stump and a beamer which also went through to the boundary to be called four wides. His next over gave umpire Chuck Coventry even more exercise, with three separate wides and two more deliveries that he was unlucky to get away with. For the President's XI it was just as well the extras were mounting, as neither batsmen seemed able to get the ball off the square after lunch, and Carlisle failed to add to his 9 in half an hour before, swishing in frustration at a ball down the leg side from Fleming and glancing it into the gloves of the keeper. The score was now 151 for four.

The new batsman Greg Lamb fell at the same score, moving across his stumps but able to get a bat on Fleming, who won an lbw decision. He was noticeably more fired up after dismissing Carlisle. The last five wickets now needed another 35 runs to avoid the follow-on. Gripper, seemingly unperturbed by the loss of one partner after another, was rock-solid at the other end on 34. After hitting only one boundary before lunch, he took charge of Fleming and drove him past mid-off and then mid-on for two fours off successive balls.

Wicket-keeper Bruce Moore-Gordon did not last long, caught at third slip by Ponting off a ball from Fleming that bounced more than he expected for only a single, reducing the score to 161 for six. Eddo Brandes poked and prodded unconvincingly for a while before finally deciding to chance his arm against Fleming, and drove him for four through extra cover. Nicholson returned from the other end, and immediately conceded a boundary off Gripper's pads.

Gripper finally reached a marathon fifty by turning Mark Waugh's first ball of the tour for a single towards long leg; it took him 286 minutes and 197 balls. The follow-on was duly avoided in partnership with an unusually restrained Brandes, in his role of captain. With 200 passed, Brandes began to open up, lofting Mark Waugh over long-on for six. Australia finally found the only way to dismiss Gripper - by running him out. He played a ball into the covers and called for a run, but was sent back too late by Brandes and left stranded three-quarters of the way down the pitch as Fleming returned the ball to Healy. Gripper's painstaking 59 showed that he has the application, temperament and technique to play Test cricket, but needs to add to his repertoire of strokes. He faced 211 balls in 299 minutes. The President's XI were now 211 for seven.

Brandes soon followed; Warne had an lbw appeal rejected and exchanged some words with umpire Coventry, but next ball Brandes went on the big hit and skyed a catch off the outside edge to Fleming in the covers. He made 30, and the score was 214 for eight. John Rennie stayed a long time without scoring, and was finally given out lbw, shuffling half forward, to McGrath, making the score 216 for nine.

Pommie Mbangwa, to the glee of his home crowd, turned a faster ball from Warne behind square leg for two to get off the mark. He was to remain unbeaten, losing Ray Price, adjudged lbw to a yorker from McGrath for 2 and bringing the innings to a close for 219, a deficit of 116. This was McGrath's fifth wicket of the innings; he did not attempt full pace but concentrated on line and length, conceding just 36 runs in 18.3 overs. Tea was taken between innings.

John Rennie struck quickly when the Australians batted again; after a single by Greg Blewett, he brought back the ball to strike Michael Slater, first ball, on the pad and win an lbw decision from umpire Ahmed Esat. Blewett did not add to his score, he completely miscued an attempted pull off a short ball from Brandes and skyed a catch to Doug Marillier at mid-off. The Australians, probably through trying to score too fast too soon, were two wickets down for just one run.

This brought the two Waugh brothers together, Steve having gone in at three, probably to get some extra batting practice since Langer, after his first-innings century, needed it less. The pair applied themselves to dig their side out of a position of some embarrassment. Brandes bowled steadily but no longer seems to have the zip, at the age of 36; probably his international career is over barring a real spate of injuries to others. Mark Waugh gradually began to find his touch and played some elegant drives through the covers off Brandes; he hit four boundaries off Brandes' fifth over. From then on the policy was sensible aggression, and the fifty came up in the 13th over.

Mbangwa came on and successfully slowed down the scoring rate for three overs, at least. When Price came on to bowl, Steve decided to open up again and hit him for six and a four over midwicket off successive balls, then another four through the covers, the bowler pitching too short. He on-drove Mbangwa for another boundary, then two late cuts to the vacant third-man region off Price brought up his fifty. The flurry of strokes continued, and some misfielding helped to boost the score. Steve was now making all the running, while Mark by comparison crawled through the forties.

A golden opportunity went down when Steve, sweeping at Price, was put down by Brandes diving at square leg. Mark finally reached his fifty with a placid single. Steve was then in the seventies; at one stage he had looked set to score a century after tea, but he seemed to take a breather at this stage. Then, with time running out, he seemed to set his sights on the rare feat again. On 91 he cut Rennie for four, then hit him through the covers for three, helped by a misfield. A single came off Gripper, but Mark was unable to score off the rest of the over. The Australians overnight then were 158 for two, with Mark Waugh on 58 and Steve on 99, off 102 balls.