Curtain falls on disappointing series for Zimbabwe A

The curtain finally fell on Zimbabwe A's difficult tour of Sri Lanka at the NCC Grounds in Colombo today. In the end the visitors were unable to escape the ignominy of not winning one game on their six-week tour as they lost this unofficial one-day international by 7 wickets with 5.5 overs remaining.

One suspects that there were some relieved players packing their kit away for the last time. Losing so regularly is not easy to cope with and would affect the morale of even the most battle hardened character. Nevertheless the tour was not devoid of positives and lessons have been learnt.

Perhaps the most important will be the realisation of the hard work required to compete successfully at this level. Some of the Zimbabwean players appear to have left Southern Africa with rather romantic perception of life as an international cricketer. Such ideas have been ruthlessly crushed by their hard working coach.

Kevin Curran is clearly "from the harder you work you the better you get" school of cricket. He wouldn't recognise a free dinner if it landed in his mouth and he has drilled into the players the ethos required by a professional cricketer. The players will leave Sri Lanka knowing that if they want to have a successful career in professional cricket they will need to work much harder.

What lessons will have been learnt by the Sri Lankan's is less clear. The Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL) will probably now rue a missed opportunity to blood some of the younger players. The likes of Indka De Saram, T.M. Dilshan, Prasana Jayawardena, Avishka Gunawardena and Chamara Silva have not been tested by the opposition and their successes thus have little value.

The Zimbabwean performance today was symptomatic of their tour in general. Having lost the toss they started disastrously losing three early wickets. However displaying some of the determination and fight for which their cricket has been renowned in the past they successfully fought themselves back into the game. Just when they looked capable of posting a competitive total and with the Sri Lankan's visibly starting to feel the pressure, they collapsed. Their hard endeavors washed away by indiscipline and carelessness.

Bowled out for just 208 rather than the 250, which had appeared so attainable just ten overs before when Craig Wishart (69) and Andy Blignaut (16) had been batting together, Sri Lanka were never likely to struggle against such an unpenetrative bowling attack.

Avishka Gunawardena (46) quickly quashed any hopes that remained with another swashbuckling start to the innings. In front of the national squad, who will be leaving for Dhaka without him despite two hundreds in the test series, he raced to 46 from just 38 deliveries. Brighton Watambwa, who was playing his first match of the tour, was dealt with particularly harshly, conceding 21 runs in his first overs.

When Gunawardena was eventually caught by Peacok running backwards at mid-off after mistiming a pull shot, Ian Daniel (82*) guided his side to victory with a composed and technically correct half century. The 19-year-old is one who should have played in the test series instead of the players with full international experience.

He singled his class in just the third over with a rasping square cut of Watambwa that shot to the point boundary and continued to impress throughout with his precise footwork and compact style. He was accompanied along the way by Chamara Silva (31) and Upeka Fernando (23*)

Earlier in the day Zimbabwe lost their third toss in succession and then slipped to 30-3 in just the seventh over. A battling forth wicket partnership of 74 between Mark Vermeulen (41) and Craig Wishart (69) then rescued the visitors. Alas an opportunity was wasted as a tired Vermeulen drove carelessly and was caught at mid-wicket.

Sixth overs later Gavin Rennie (12) was deceived by the flight of Puspakumara and was comprehensively stumped. It brought the enigmatic Andy Blignaut (16) to the crease. In a partnership of 42 they threatened to produce a competitive total but threw away the opportunity with two needless dismissals: Wishart run-out after being sent back by his partner and Blignaut caught at extra cover attempting the extravagant when something more mundane would have sufficed.