Interview with Guy Whittall
John Ward talks to Guy Whittall about the second day of the Test match against New Zealand at Harare Sports Club, after Zimbabwe replied to New Zealand's 465 all out with 31 for one
John Ward
20-Sep-2000
John Ward talks to Guy Whittall about the second day of the Test
match against New Zealand at Harare Sports Club, after Zimbabwe
replied to New Zealand's 465 all out with 31 for one.
JW (John Ward): So, Guy, it was obviously a long day in the
field.
GW (Guy Whittall): Yes, obviously; I thought the guys bowled a
lot better today, though. Streaky had a fantastic opening spell and
was unlucky not to get a wicket. McMillan played him very well today,
even though he only scored 15 he saw off the new ball and batted for
the first two-hour session. Cairns was getting busy the other side,
but old McMillan I thought batted extremely well, seeing off the new
ball and setting it up, because this pitch flattens out. In the
afternoon it's not nearly the same, but in the morning it does a bit.
There was no turn in there for the spinners. Paul Strang and Grant
Flower just got it on the spot and tried to contain them.
I don't think we could have done any more to contain them; Henry
Olonga and Pom Mbangwa were quite tired. Pommie also came back with a
very good spell. Henry bowled very quickly today and yesterday, and
it's encouraging to see that he's back at full pace. It was a real
test of character for everyone out there, trying to keep everyone
going, and I think we stuck to our guns quite well, considering we
were out there for two days and that's quite a good pitch to bat on.
If we can try to bat like the Kiwis, with a lot of discipline, no rash
shots, playing down the V. They just let us make the mistakes; every
time we tried to take wickets, they just got the bad ball away. But
it was encouraging to see from our bowlers that they handled it quite
well.
Unfortunately `Syke' Nkala didn't bowl too well, but you can't put too
much pressure on the guy; he's only 19 and he's the future all-rounder
for the country, and he' had a few injury problems, a lot of blisters
on his feet, I think, and he's holding back a bit for fear of it.
He'll come through it; he's got a good future.
JW: And throughout the innings as a whole, which of the New
Zealand batsmen impressed you the most?
GW: Well, I thought Richardson set it up very well for them
yesterday. He's got a lot of composure, his technique is quite sound
and he just had his game together and had a good mind-set. Nathan
Astle has always got runs against us, does well against us, but it was
a relief that he didn't go on to his hundred. He was looking quite
good. Chris Cairns I thought played it in a positive way as he had a
game plan; he's played on this pitch before and he was quick on the
short balls; he did try and go over the top, he didn 't want to be
caught on the crease.
JW: A bit of a worrying last session for our batsman.
GW: Well, Grant Flower had a long day in the field, and it's
always going to be quite hard for a batsman when you've been two days
in the field to come out and bat in that last hour, and I thought they
did very well. So that was encouraging.
It was quite a boring day of cricket, where both teams were trying to
outdo the other in patience! But they've got a good first innings and
they' ll want to capitalise on it.