Streak looks for crumbs of comfort

At the start of their Ashes-winning series against Australia in 1986-87, the England side were famously mocked by one local journalists under the headline "Can't bat, can't bowl". Following their crushing defeat in the first Test at Lord's, Zimbabwe have attracted similar criticism from the English media, but unlike Mike Gatting's side, it is hard to see that there is any way back for Zimbabwe.

They have only one match ahead of the second Test which starts in nine days time - a four-dayer against Middlesex at Shenley - but so outclassed were they at Lord's that their main objective would appear to be trying to avoid another humiliation at Chester-le-Street.

"It will be difficult to come back from this but we have got to pick ourselves up, there is a lot of work between now and then," Heath Streak, Zimbabwe's captain, admitted. "We have a young side but they have to learn quickly and show a bit of character. We don't have the time not to learn from these experiences."

Streak was also aware that Zimbabwe's poor bowling performance was simply not good enough at Test level. "Our guys just haven't adapted to conditions here," Streak said. "We had problems against the Duke ball as it swings consistently throughout the innings and we did not seem to know where our off stump was. The long and short of it is that we didn't get enough in the right zone and create enough pressure. We gave too many four balls which released any pressure we built and allowed them to keep ticking over"

The batting was equally disappointing, with inadequate technique to blame for two collapses - something that cannot be remedied in nine days. "We showed that on wickets that swing and seam you cannot play with hard hands and I think that this was the big difference between the sides at Lord's," Streak continued. "There were a lot of soft dismissals throughout for us and we have to learn from that. A lot of guys were sparring at balls they needn't have played at, well outside off stump, and they will have to learn to leave better and play straighter."