Zimbabwe President's XI v Australians, day 1

Day 1:

Justin Langer, after struggling for runs in Sri Lanka, welcomed the opportunity to get some batting practice in less testing conditions in Bulawayo, scoring a fine 148 to dominate the Australians' total of 335 for seven wickets declared against the ZCU President's XI. The home side should have done considerably better against the unacclimatised tourists, but spoilt their performance with a poor display in the field, several chances being missed.

The Australians had arrived in Bulawayo to find unseasonably wintry conditions facing them: overcast skies and an icy wind, almost unknown for Bulawayo in traditionally the hottest month of the year. The match day dawned similarly, but fortunately soon after eight in the morning the skies began to clear and normal October service was resumed. The crowd, if it can be so termed, gradually swelled during the day until it reached several hundred. Press facilities at Queens unfortunately remain primitive, the media being housed in a decrepit old commentary box without proper telephone lines. However we are assured that a proper press box is next on the list of ground development.

Eddo Brandes won the toss for the President's XI and, hopeful of some early life, the only concession the Queens Sports Club pitch usually makes to bowlers, put the tourists in to bat. He opened the bowling with John Rennie, but was unable to trouble the batsmen at first. Michael Slater began by pulling a four through midwicket, and in Brandes' next over pulled and cut boundaries off consecutive balls. He hooked again at a bouncer outside off stump, but a confident appeal for a catch at the wicket was rejected. Brandes then began to appreciate the folly of bowling short to Australians and pitched the ball further up, as Rennie did from the start, and the scoring rate dropped. Greg Blewett led a less spectacular life than Slater, but hit a superb four off Brandes through extra cover. Rennie caused both batsmen to play with care, swinging the ball predominantly in to the right-hander.

Slater was first to go, lashing at a ball from Rennie outside off stump without getting over it and lofting a catch to Stuart Carlisle at backward point. He made 18, all off Brandes, and the Australians were now 33 for one. Justin Langer was off the mark immediately, pushing a ball to leg for a single. Pommie Mbangwa, omitted from the Test team through supposed lack of form, replaced Brandes and immediately dropped on to a length. For a while Rennie and Mbangwa restricted the batsmen largely to the odd pushed single. Langer, looking a little desperate, slashed Mbangwa uppishly and just wide of Mark Vermeulen at second slip, recording a fortuitous boundary.

Finally, however, the batsmen decided they were well enough settled and began to hit a series of fine boundaries. Langer hit Rennie twice most impressively through the covers, while Blewett drove Mbangwa well until he tried it once too often, found the outside edge, and was well caught low down to his left at second slip by Vermeulen. He scored 25, and the score was 64 for two.

Mark Waugh took 13 balls of caution before getting off the mark with a quick single into the covers off Mbangwa. The batsmen then concentrated on pushing for ones and twos, apart from a four by Langer through extra cover off a Brandes full toss, and a similar shot in the following over off a half-volley. Then at the other end he drove Mbangwa to the extra cover boundary - clearly his favourite stroke. The hundred came up just before lunch when a thick inside edge from Waugh off Brandes beat the keeper on its way to the boundary. At last he seemed to find some timing with a neat flick to the midwicket boundary, and the score at the interval was 110 for two off 34 overs, with Langer on 46 and Waugh 20.

In the second over after lunch the President's XI missed the chance of a vital breakthrough when Waugh, still not timing the ball, pushed at a delivery from Rennie outside the off stump and wicket-keeper Bruce Moore-Gordon dropped a straight-forward catch. Waugh was on 21 at the time. Langer reached his fifty, off 71 balls, with his first airborne stroke, a lofted straight drive off left-arm spinner Ray Price. He celebrated it with a massive six swung over midwicket, but then went strangely quiet for a while. Waugh began to look more confident, and that dropped chance may do Australia a big favour for the Test match next week. An on-drive off an overpitched ball from Price took him to his fifty. Soon afterwards the century partnership came and went.

Mbangwa returned to the fray, but was not quite as accurate as usual, and Waugh simply waited for the bad delivery and then punished it. Price was also proving expensive, although finding some turn in the pitch, and Langer hit him back over his head for six. Both batsmen were on 63 when afternoon drinks came, and Waugh had not added to this score when he tried to hit Price back over his head, only to lob a catch to backward point Trevor Madondo off the outside edge. The score was now 192 for three, a stand of 128.

Steve Waugh got off the mark with another chance to the keeper, although a very hard one this time, an inside edge off Price. It took him a while to find his touch, but then he began to use his feet to the spinners and drive straight. A straight drive off off-spinner Trevor Gripper took Langer to 99, and then a single swatted to extra cover brought him his century. It came off 152 balls, the first first-class century of the Zimbabwean season. Waugh pushed on with the runs, hitting several classic straight fours with an occasional four, before he pushed back a sharp return catch to Gripper, who juggled once then held it, a notable first victim in first-class cricket. Waugh had made 27, and the Australians were 237 for four.

The scoring rate thereupon slowed, with both batsmen content to play for the tea interval. Ponting had a lucky escape on 5, snicking a ball between the keeper and first slip, neither of whom was quick enough to make more than a token grasp at it. At tea the score was 251 for four, with Langer on 108 and Ponting 8.

Moore-Gordon's miserable day behind the stumps continued when Langer, on 121, was stranded well down the pitch to Price and he failed to gather the ball for the stumping. Ponting became the fourth Australian batsman of the innings to make a start but fail to build on it when, on 24, he drove at Mbangwa, armed with the second new ball, and edged a catch to Brandes at first slip. The Australians were now 286 for five.

Langer appeared to be seeing the ball better the longer he stayed, and now began to develop his strokes through midwicket, and occasionally over, as when he flicked Mbangwa beautifully over the boundary in that direction. He had another escape on 139, when he drove to mid-off and was put down off a straight-forward chance. Ian Healy made his first excursion into double figures for some time, hitting a couple of thumping fours through extra cover.

Langer finally fell for 148, trying a lofted straight hit off Rennie but skying it over mid-off. Doug Marillier, running back, took a fine tumbling catch to reduce the Australians to 326 for six. Langer faced 233 balls and hit 13 fours and 2 sixes. Shane Warne did not last long, also trying to hit Rennie over his head but skying the ball to mid-off this time, where Greg Lamb took the catch. He scored only a single, and the seventh Australian wicket had fallen at 335. At this point Steve Waugh declared his team's innings closed. Only five extras were conceded in the innings, an example of the home side's naivety in an era when teams are apparently expected to concede at least 10% of their opponents' total in extras! Healy was left unbeaten on 25, and might well have benefited from extra batting practice.

Gripper and Marillier began with some caution against Glenn McGrath and Damien Fleming, two bowlers the quality of which they had rarely faced before. Marillier was first to go, with only a single to his credit; he flashed at the first ball he faced from McGrath and snicked an easy catch to Healy behind the stumps. The President's XI were 3 for one wicket.

Gripper and Vermeulen continued the struggle, and at times it was difficult to see where the next run was coming from. Vermeulen on 6 enjoyed a life when Healy missed a very difficult inside edge down the leg side. Runs came from pushes and nudges until the more erratic Matthew Nicholson came on to bowl, and Vermeulen cut him for three to third man before Gripper turned twos past midwicket and square leg. At the close the President's XI were 25 for one, with Gripper on 7 and Vermeulen 9. The two batsmen had done well to battle it through calmly and sensibly, and lived to fight another day.