Review: Zimbabwe vs Sri Lanka

Take away the pressure and Zimbabwe play better. They did much better for three-quarters of their final World Cup match of 2003 against Sri Lanka before collapsing to give Sri Lanka a rather easy victory in the end by 76 runs.

The turning point of the match, as so often but now for the last time, was the dismissal of Andy Flower. Zimbabwe were looking on course to challenge the Sri Lankan total of 256, with the Flower brothers together, but it was one of those instances where an umpiring error turned the match. Umpire Brian Jerling gave Andy out lbw, failing to detect an inside edge on to the pad, and that brought Andy's international career to an end. But it can be said that a side that packed in so quickly after that error didn't really deserve to win anyway.

But at least Zimbabwe looked a better team this time that the sombre crew that took the field against Kenya. Sri Lanka batted on winning the toss, but a combination of a slow East London pitch, not ideal for a one-day match, and accurate seam bowling, especially by Heath Streak, made scoring difficult. Perhaps there was also for them the pressure of knowing their future in this World Cup depended on the result. Against Zimbabwe they may well have decided to play it safely, ensure a satisfactory total rather than gamble on a high one, and trust their bowlers to remove Zimbabwe's fragile batting.

It was a policy that might have got them into trouble had it not been for the Andy Flower dismissal. Zimbabwe did their best to give Andy a memorable finale to his great international career with a victory and showed more vibrancy in the field than they did against Kenya - where they could hardly have shown less.

They gave Travis Friend and Stuart Matsikenyeri their first games of the competition, but Alistair Campbell was one of the casualties expected to stand down. This meant yet another opening partner for Craig Wishart - believe it or not, his fifth in eight matches. He has opened in turn with Mark Vermeulen, Guy Whittall, Vermeulen again, Dion Ebrahim, Campbell and now it was Doug Marillier's turn. Any comment on selection policies here is superfluous.

Wishart himself has not made the most of this tournament since his record innings against the weak Namibian team. Time and again he has done the hard work, made a start and then lost his wicket: after 172 not out, his scores have been 12, 10, 21, 30, 5 and now 43. What a waste! He has been dumped by the selectors numerous times during his career, and they may well take the excuse to do so again. He has the talent to succeed against any bowling, but has only partially done so, and he may well regret his failure to make his place in the side rock-sure when he had the chance.

Zimbabwe's bowlers did a good job until the pressure mounted at the end of the Sri Lankan innings. Then the batsmen cut loose, with Kumar Sangakkara the most outstanding, and they wilted. However they were not alone in this as the New Zealand bowlers had nothing to be proud of when Streak took them apart two matches earlier.

There seemed to be more vitality in the fielding, too. There were some great saves by several players, but on the debit side there were missed catches.

Zimbabwe began their run-chase superbly. Their batting against Kenya had seemed quite brainless. If they had expected to go in and help themselves then, they were soon disillusioned, and if such a realistic Plan A existed, where was Plan B? Or maybe Plan B was simply 'chuck your wicket away'.

But now we had Wishart and Marillier taking the attack to the bowlers, driving with confidence even on a pitch not best suited to it. Even Chaminda Vaas, so long a thorn in Zimbabwe's side, came under attack and temporarily lost his accuracy. There was some good running between the wickets, another aspect of batsmanship that had apparently been thrown out of the window against Kenya.

Travis Friend did a good, if brief, job at number three with 21 off 20 balls, and with the Flower brothers in command Zimbabwe needed at one stage 117 to win in 22 overs with seven wickets left. Then came the umpire's finger of doom, and Zimbabwe quickly subsided.

Andy Blignaut was Zimbabwe's hope when he came in at 150 for five, then Streak at 178 for seven, but both fell quickly and tamely. Only Grant Flower and Sean Ervine held up the march of the Sri Lankans at all; the others hastened back to the pavilion in no time.

The post-Andy Flower era is upon us. It will be an era of unreliable batting and sorry collapses - unless we can find specialist batsmen willing to put their hands up and take responsibility as Andy did. Perhaps somebody will rise to the occasion, but at the moment there is no sign of it.

Finally, how about this for an alternative Zimbabwe eleven? Johnson, Madondo, Goodwin, Hick, Andy Flower, Penney, Paul Strang, Andrew Whittall, Bryan Strang, Adam Huckle and Brighton Watambwa; twelfth man Everton Matambanadzo.

This now is a full team of players who should be available for Zimbabwe right now but are not. Trevor Madondo (sadly dead) and Paul Strang (long-term arm injury) cannot play for reasons beyond their control; the rest chose to leave over the years. We now need those who have remained faithful to Zimbabwe to make sure they use their talents to the full and do not let Zimbabwe down.

This is not really happening at the moment. We may be short of talent compared to eight other countries, but we have enough potential talent to be doing far better than we are at the moment. At least there is some improvement in that we were competitive for most of the match against Sri Lanka. It is sad we couldn't have been competitive to the end. If we had, we might still have lost, but it would have been a thriller.

Guys, we need players who relish the pressure, relish the fight, relish the responsibility. Where are you?