Douglas Hondo - Among the wickets

For the last two or three seasons, Zimbabwe's pace attack has consisted of Heath Streak - when fit - and two or three ineffective back-up seamers who seem to bowl at least two four-balls every over and have about as much chance of earning a wicket as Saddam Hussain has of winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

Perhaps this is rather harsh, but a look at many of the opposition totals during that time shows clearly the weakness of the Zimbabwean `attack' - South Africa 600 for three in five sessions in Harare is one example. But now two young players in Andy Blignaut and Douglas Hondo are progressing beyond the cannon-fodder stage to take their place alongside their captain as bowlers of genuine international quality.

Douggie Hondo in particular has started his first tour of England with a bang. He took a bagful of wickets against the British Universities in the first match and then, against Worcestershire, three in one over to turn the course of the innings.

Douggie is not the quickest of bowlers, but he moves the ball predominantly away from the bat and can coax surprising bounce out of flat pitches. He has had some experience of English conditions before, after playing two seasons for Lydney in 1999 and 2000.

Douggie is a very laidback character: "nothing fazes him," said one of his team-mates. "He's the Bob Marley of the side - his hairstyle, not his smoking habits!"

"It started off very cold," Douggie says of the Universities match at Edgbaston, Birmingham, "so it took me a long time to warm up and get into it. But when I started hitting line and length, it was no different to any other match. I bowl a bit fuller here (at Worcester)."

At Worcester, Zimbabwe lost the toss and had to field on a pitch that had already been used and showed definite wear at one end. "It was doing quite a lot," he says, "but we started off bowling too short, so we didn't get the batsmen fishing around for it. But whenever we pitched it up, it looked like something was going to happen. Sometimes things just don't click together, but when they did we got the wickets. `Blidge' (Andy Blignaut) bowled well in spells and so did the two spinners (Raymond Price and Grant Flower)."

Geoff Marsh keeps things simple for his team and his game plan for the Worcestershire innings was simply, "Take all your chances and get one run-out. Bowl in your channels." Douggie's channel was off stump, moving the ball away towards the slips.

Douggie bowled without effect for quite a while. Worcestershire were coasting at 187 for three. Then Douggie struck, seaming the first ball of the over away off the pitch; Kadeer Ali played defensively at it but only succeeded in edging it to wicketkeeper Tatenda Taibu.

New batsman Andrew Hall took a single and Ben Smith, on 53, blocked the third ball of the over. Douggie again got the fourth ball to seam away off the pitch, Smith pushed at it and again Taibu accepted the catch. Gareth Batty came in and departed first ball, beaten and bowled all ends up by a pinpoint yorker. "Don't give a batsman a chance when he comes in," Douggie grins.

Not surprisingly, Vikram Solanki, Worcestershire's top scorer with 74, impressed Douggie the most with the bat. "He looked the most solid of all the players," Douggie says. But Solanki did throw away his wicket unnecessarily, stumped as he leapt down the pitch to try to hit Raymond Price out of the ground. "Pressure," says Douggie. "That's what we were trying to do, keep him under pressure."

Did he bowl any differently to Solanki? "The same," says Douggie, but then admits he did adjust his length a little. "He started looking to drive (off the front foot), so I tried to force him back a bit and he wasn't quite there."

The pitch continued to move around throughout the day, and Zimbabwe in turn struggled, finishing the day on 69 for three. Most of the movement for Douggie was off the pitch: "I'm more of a seamer, but I swung a few." The Worcestershire pace bowlers appeared more dangerous than the Zimbabwean seamers, even Douggie for much of his 13-over spell - he took three for 53.

But Douggie did find himself struggling a bit with the variable weather during the day. It began bright and sunny, but clouded over on and off throughout the day, and when it was cloudy it was quite cold. "It made me struggle a bit when it got cold," he says. "I had to warm myself up to bowl. I become a bit more chirpy when the sun is out."

"They kept the pressure on us," Douggie compliments them. "And we stuck it out - kind of!" Grant Flower, who scored a century against the Universities, struggled to make 18. "You have your days; everyone has their days," Douggie says philosophically. Zimbabweans will be hoping that their genial assassin will have more `days' on this England tour.