Pace bowler Henry Olonga's six wickets for 19 runs
destroyed the back of the England innings in their match
at Cape Town recently, winning the day for Zimbabwe.
He talks to John Ward about the match and the tour.
JW: Henry, first of all how did you find conditions in
South Africa compared to those in Zimbabwe?
HO: Their wickets were a bit helpful for bowlers. When
we say this is a flat wicket it didn't necessarily mean it
was going to be difficult to bowl on. In fact, some of
those wickets were a touch on the slow side, and it was
very difficult for the batsman to hit through the line. I
think if you follow that whole tournament you'll find the
bowlers did very well on that tour, and I think every
second game a bowler took four or five wickets. It was
very good for bowling in South African conditions
because the outfields tended to be a couple of yards
slower, so it was difficult for batsmen to score and as a
result bowlers could bring back a good analysis.
I personally found the wickets I played on weren't very
helpful. Newlands [Cape Town] was very nice to bowl on
and the ball swung around, but that was more to do with
the atmospheric conditions than the wicket. But it was a
very nice wicket - good carry, good bounce. Kimberley I
think was the flattest wicket of the lot and we should
have capitalised on that. But I think there's always
something in it for the bowlers; if you bowl straight
enough and on a good length you tended to have just
reward.
JW: Did you have to do anything to adjust your bowling
to the conditions?
HO: No, I think I found I was at home on the South
African wickets. If you recall I was at the Plascon Cricket
Academy for four months so I was pretty familiar with
the kind of conditions we were going to face, and while I
was there we had a tour round South Africa to various
venues - not any of the venues we actually played at,
but I was familiar with the kind of length I had to bowl.
So I settled in there nicely.
JW: I noticed you didn't play in the first match of the
tournament.
HO: That was due to my left knee flaring up; in fact, it's
being doing that for most of the games I've played in
since we came back after Christmas. So it was a
precautionary measure. I wasn't sure I'd make it through
that game because it was quite sore. But it recovered
nicely for me to be able to play in that Newlands game.
JW: Can you first of all describe the ground and the
conditions.
HO: It's very much like any of the grounds you find in
South Africa. It has a bank on one side and the main
pavilion - one on each side, actually - and wonderful
nets. The nice thing about our preparation for that match
was that we had good nets, and the batsmen got in and
were able to work on their game for a good couple of
days. The outfield we were very pleased with - it was
very flat and wonderful grass, very different from the
kind of kikuyu we get back at home. For some reason,
though, it was very heavy; I don't know why, I don't think
they'd had any rain recently, but it was just a slowish
outfield.
I don't think there was too much grass on the wicket; in
fact, I can't remember there being any grass at all, but it
was a nice hard wicket, had good carry, good bounce,
and bowling in the evening is always an advantage at
Newlands, because the ball doesn't really get wet and it
does swing. The highest score to win at Newlands I
think was just over 200, so for a team to chase our
score of 214 and win would have been a mammoth
task; it would have been going against the history of the
ground. So we knew that having got 214 we thought it
was a winning total, one of the highest scores at
Newlands.
JW: Who did well for us with the bat?
HO: Well, it was Neil Johnson who batted through the
innings for us, and a lot of the other batters batted
around him. Then he got out with a few overs to go, and
as we said and is common sense to any cricket follower,
if you can get one batsman to bat through and the
others bat around him, you're going to get a good score,
normally between 220 and 250 plus. That game was a
wonderful game because we got most of the
departments right: we bowled well, we fielded well,
caught all our catches, and the batting was superb.
JW: So when you came on to bowl, did you have a
feeling that it was going to be your day?
HO: Not at all, John; I just figured that if I bowled with a
bit of rhythm and didn't try to bowl too fast - it was
something I'd been working on in the nets. I'd been
trying to get over my front knee, which is something I
hadn't been doing - the knee that's been giving me
problems, and in fact it's only been giving me problems
since I tried getting over it! - but what it meant was that
I'd be bowling at my full height and letting the ball go
with the seam upright. So I just figured out that if I got it
in the right areas enough times I'd get lucky, but I didn't
figure I'd get six wickets, to be honest!
It's a day I can look back on and say, "Well, I'm not sure
how everything fell together that day" - I can analyse
videos and analyse my action and see what I got right,
but if the truth be told, it's just one of those moments
when you're in the zone. I think golfers know what it
means to be in the zone, and basketball players and
football players, when you just can't seem to do
anything wrong. Obviously you want to be in the zone
as often as you can be, but that doesn't happen too
often. The best bowlers and the best batsmen are those
who can get into that zone all the time, and for me that
was a day when I was on form. Hopefully, with
experience and maturity and the more I play - I think I've
only played 25 one-day games - the more I play, the
more I'll be able to relax and do the things I did right
then over and over again - if my knee holds out!
JW: Can you describe the wickets you took?
HO: Well, it just so happened that I was swinging both
ways. I had my grip right and I was obviously landing
right, and I figured that if I got it in the right areas it
would swing for me, either away or in. I didn't plan to
bowl inswingers and outswingers, but it just so
happened I bowled an outswinger to Nick Knight, which
had him fishing - in fact, I was bowling slightly wide of
off stump for him initially, and he drove one or two
through cover, got two for it, so I bowled one that went
away from him and figured he would get across more.
Having done that I got one that swung back at him and
caught him plumb in front - I think that would have got
middle stump, or leg stump.
JW: Did you have much control of the swing?
HO: I don't think I did; as I said I was just trying to get it
in the right areas. For me that's important; if I'm bowling
a good pace and getting it on a decent line and a decent
length, if it goes away and it's on or around off stump,
it's going to beat the bat, and if it comes in hopefully it's
going to hit a glove or get him lbw. I didn't have control
of my swing, but I did have control of my line and length.
Because I got it in a good area, when it swung away it
didn't matter. Off stump is a good area to bowl to Nick
Knight, I think; he's very good on the cut so you don't
want to give him width, and nothing shorter than a
length. His was a very good wicket because it was all
worked out.
The second wicket to fall was Graeme Hick in the same
over. The first ball I bowled came back at him, and the
ball that got him out just held its line - I don't think it
swung a great deal, and it was wonderful to see that he
edged it. It was a decent ball in a good area, and he
walked, so that helped.
Solanki was the third to fall. He got a wide one that
swung on him and he played a nice booming square
drive that carried, just about as high as Murray Goodwin
could stretch. He just held it in his fingertips and that
was a great catch, a match-changing catch, because
Solanki and Hussain were looking good. Solanki was
timing the ball nicely and was looking like he would get
a big score. So it was a nice wicket to get, and it wasn't
due to a great ball, it was just a great piece of fielding.
Then Nasser Hussain played on - full ball, fast, not quite
a yorker, just outside off stump, and he managed to get
a thick inside edge which made the ball career into leg
stump. Many people noticed that I didn't see that he had
been bowled, and that was because I was unsighted.
The ball hit leg stump and he was batting on two-leg or
something. I didn't see initially that he'd been bowled
because I only saw the ball heading off to fine leg, but I
did see Andy Flower running towards me with his hands
in the air and I heard the roar from the crowd, so I
figured that something has happened. Much the same
happened yesterday [the first one-day international at
Bulawayo] when I didn't realise he'd been bowled. Once
again he played it on to his leg stump.
Adams had been struggling, as far as we'd gathered,
throughout the season outside the off stump, so we
figured that if we kept the ball in a good area outside off
stump we had a good chance of getting him out. The
ball bounced on him a little and flew to Neil Johnson,
who took a blinder of a catch.
The last wicket was Chris Read. There was nothing in
the game for them, and Andy Flower brought me back
on. Read was obliged to smack it as far as he could,
and he hit it in the air for Guy Whittall to take the catch,
and I was very pleased to end up with six wickets for 19.
I didn't know that it was Zimbabwe's best until after the
match, I didn't know it was the eighth best in one-day
internationals and one better than Bryan Strang's record
of six for 20. So it wasn't until after the match that I
realised that all sorts of things were supposed to have
happened that night. But it was a special night.
But in the circles I move in, Christian circles, I would call
it a day when God's hand rested upon me. That was a
day I can look back on and say, "Well, it was different
from other days." There are key times when God has
equipped me that way, and I remember the World Cup
against India. If you asked me to reproduce that I
probably couldn't do it at will; it's just a moment in time
when God's ability and anointing rest upon me. And I
think that was one of the days when everything went
right; we found how to get batsmen out and it worked.
Save for the wicket of Solanki, the rest were good balls
that deserved to get wickets. It was only the skill and
ability that was divinely resting upon me, I guess.
As I say, the more I play and the more experience I get,
the more I will be able to produce magicals. I'd like to be
able to bowl like Wasim Akram, as I said in an interview
in Pakistan, and he's my role model if you will, the guy I
look up to, and I think he's an awesome bowler. I'll never
bowl like him, but I certainly have taken a few things
from him. He's given me advice over the years and I've
been able to put some of those things into practice.
It was wonderful that I could go out and bowl like that
because a lot of people have asked in the past whether
I should be in the one-day side. Even today there are
times when people ask that question, but I think of late
I've been bowling a lot better than I have throughout my
career in one-day games - I haven't played many, as I
said. But I've been maturing and growing and able to
bowl more consistently, and a much better line and
length.
JW: What sort of speed were you bowling at in that
match?
HO: I wasn't bowling very fast; in fact I haven't been
trying to bowl flat out; one, because of my knee, and
two, because I don't think it's necessary. The faster I
bowl, the more prone I become to bowl wides and noballs, and all sorts of dross in between - short, wide,
everything. So I have decided to bowl a little slower, a
little within myself, mainly because I have more control. I
do sometimes get wickets through bowling fast, but I've
found that if I bowl in good areas, at a decent speed,
130 [kilometres per hour], I will get wickets as long as
it's moving.
JW: Just an occasional very fast one?
HO: Definitely, although sometimes it doesn't come out
right, sometimes I do bowl the odd wide here and there,
like yesterday the instructions were for me to go out
there and get wickets - we needed to get wickets in
case it rained, and then under the Duckworth-Lewis
calculation method we would be slightly ahead by taking
wickets. Yes, it does go wrong once in a while if I try to
bowl fast, and if I bowl within myself the batsmen can
run down the pitch to me, hit me over the top, do all
sorts of things.
JW: When I spoke to you about a year ago, you told me
that when you tried to concentrate on line and length
rather than speed, it didn't work.
HO: No, it didn't, because the coach wanted me to bowl
flat out, and at that time it was working because I'd take
lots of wickets with the new ball. Then they brought me
on first change, if you remember, for the last few
matches, with Heath back in action, and then they
changed back again and gave me the new ball.
Throughout the Sri Lanka series I was bowling with the
new ball, and it was very important that we got early
wickets, but also that we didn't get them off to a flying
start because those Sri Lankans can get on to anything
loose. Throughout that Sri Lanka series I actually
shortened my run-up and bowled a little bit within myself
in the one-day games, especially with the new ball.
Things changed when I hurt my knee, because now I
can't just bowl flat out and because I need to last the
game. So I'm bowling a little bit within myself, and that
has changed mainly because as I said of my knee and
I'm having success bowling that way as well. If it wasn't
working I'd have changed back to how I used to bowl.
JW: You really need a break, but you won't get one for
several months.
HO: No, we won't, and I've obviously got to watch this.
Guy Whittall's out with his knee injury - he's off for five
weeks or so, so he might miss the West Indies tour
which is very sad for us. But we're not thin on bowling,
and one of the things that were discussed at the
beginning of the season was that because it was such a
long season there would be opportunities for most of the
bowlers to break down. I've bowled pretty much nonstop as a strike bowler for four months now and my
frame is not that strong; I'm a very lean guy, and we'll
just have to hope and pray that I last the next four
months.
I don't think it's as serious as a season-threatening
injury; I just think it's one of those injuries that needs a
bit of a rest here and there, and then I can get back into
action. I don't think it's possible that I'll play every single
match from now until the end of the season, without it
flaring up and giving me problems. A break doesn't
necessarily mean a month or two weeks; it means
maybe I should rest for a couple of games if it starts to
give me problems. And that's what happened in South
Africa, and I rested for a game, which gave me about
four days, which I think is all I need, and I won't need to
be put on hold for about five weeks.
JW: Any other memorable moments in South Africa?
HO: The Kingsmead match, of course, where we won
our second victory over South Africa, and I took two
early wickets, which was nice, because I bowled well,
and sort of fairly economically because I was going at
four an over, which is different for me because I usually
go for fives. That was nice for me, because I had a part
to play, and after I took two early wickets they didn't stop
losing wickets. And I didn't think I bowled badly during
that match. I was happy with that return, and getting our
second victory over South Africa was brilliant.
I'm really grateful to God for having given me this career
and a lot of what has happened over my career has
been very character-building. I had a bad start to my
career, I've had injuries that put me out for a long time,
I've also had a horrendous amount of criticism over the
years, so I just think it's wonderful for God to vindicate
me this way. I'm not saying it's done now, I've arrived,
I'm now the finished product - no, but what I can say is
looking back and having the best figures by a
Zimbabwean bowler in one-day cricket is very pleasing
to me. It's not something that would have made good
sense to a few people some years ago.
I remember Robson Sharuko writing an article in The
Herald at the beginning of the season after a played
against Australia, and I played really badly, I bowled
badly, I ran Bryan Strang out in our first innings, and it
was just a bad game. The press just jumped on to it and
his exact words were, "At this stage in time we don't
need Henry Olonga. Instead we should give David
Mutendera a chance." I think it was a bit harsh.
From then on, my season just seemed to get better and
better, and I got wickets throughout the matches I
played in, I got wickets against South Africa, I got four
against South Africa, I got four against Sri Lanka - I was
getting wickets consistently. Even in the one-day
games; my one-day game improved. So it's wonderful to
know that a lot of the criticism that's come, a lot of my
critics have had to swallow their words to some extent.
It's a wonderful feeling to know that when everyone
writes you off, Almighty God can give me the ability to
confound my critics, as has been seen. If I could do that
every day, I'd be a truly awesome cricketer, don't you
think, John? But God does it out of weakness, so his
glory may be increased.