22 February 1999
Maddy leaves his mark on Zimbabwe
By Charles Randall in Harare
ENGLAND A fly from Harare to Johannesburg this afternoon to begin
the South Africa leg of their two-month tour, leaving Zimbabwe
with an unbeaten record - if only just.
Their third one-day international against Zimbabwe A at Alexandra
on Saturday was another exciting affair, which England might well
have lost, as with the previous two. They passed a slightly
revised target, under the Duckworth-Lewis method, with two
wickets in hand and, again, upper order failure had to be papered
over by the middle order.
Victory ensured a 3-0 series win in the one-day internationals -
the three-match Test series was won 1-0 - and a bright end to the
Zimbabwe leg of the tour.
The match was Darren Maddy's first chance as captain on the tour,
and for much of England's innings it looked as though the
Leicestershire batsman would end up embarrassed as a loser until
Matthew Windows, with 48 off 58 balls, and Chris Read, 36 off 43,
turned the tide.
England's bowlers did well to restrict the Zimbabweans. Andrew
Flintoff hit the pitch hard with his seamers, taking four good
wickets, and the World Cup selectors should find it hard to omit
him from the final squad on current all-round form. Paul Franks
looked more effective than the seam bowler he replaced on the
tour, Jason Lewry.
Nevertheless, following the loss of Maddy to a catch at fine leg
in the first over, Flintoff's complacent miscued pull was an
unworthy dismissal on Saturday, and it left England struggling to
pick up momentum.
Maddy, in his first game as captain at first-class level, made a
blizzard of decisions in the field after his first correct call,
the toss. He made 12 bowling changes, sent down eight overs
himself in four spells and opened the batting. A back spasm
prevented Darren Thomas from bowling more than seven overs, and
Graeme Swann could not grip a wet ball for his off-spin.
Maddy, after hectic juggling of his resources, wondered whether
he had taken on too much responsibility. "It certainly felt that
way," he said. "When I walked out to bat to take first strike, my
head was still spinning around and I was thinking 'what's going
on?' I just feel sorry for Alec Stewart, who has to keep wicket
as well for the senior side. All credit to him."
For the past month England were given fiercer competition than
they must have expected, except in the early warm-ups. That
suggested that Zimbabwean cricket was improving, and certainly
the efforts of their fringe players in the one-day series was
impressive.
Stuart Carlisle and Dirk Viljoen, two batsmen, enhanced their
reputations, though it might be too late for the injury-prone
seam bowler Eddo Brandes, destroyer of Mike Atherton's side two
years ago, to make the plane for England this summer.
Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)