Zimbabwe Board XI in the UCBSA Bowl

The Zimbabwe Board XI recently played their last round in the UCBSA Bowl competition against Northerns B at Harare South Country Club, between 13 and 16 January. They lost their three-day match in rather disappointing fashion, but maintained their 100% record in the one-day match. Coach Trevor Penney tells about how his team performed.

ZIMBABWE BOARD XI v NORTHERNS B

The Zimbabwe Board XI recently played their last round in the UCBSA Bowl competition against Northerns B at Harare South Country Club, between 13 and 16 January. They lost their three-day match in rather disappointing fashion, but maintained their 100% record in the one-day match. Coach Trevor Penney tells about how his team performed.

POTTED SCORES

THREE-DAY MATCH: NORTHERN TRANSVAAL B 295 (E Makonyana 46, R Kriel 99, A Paleker 61; R W Price 3/64) and 192 (R Kriel 39, M J R Rindel 60, Q Ferreira 39; D T Mutendera 3/34, R W Price 3/60). ZIMBABWE BOARD XI 170 (T N Madondo 30, D P Viljoen 52; R E Bryson 3/35, Q R Still 3/38) and 226 (T N Madondo 76, D P Viljoen 31, D J R Campbell 33; R E Bryson 3/43). Northern Transvaal B won by 91 runs.

ONE-DAY MATCH: ZIMBABWE BOARD XI 256.5 (D A Marillier 35, T R Gripper 43, G J Rennie 64*; A Paleker 2/56). NORTHERN TRANSVAAL B 206 (R Kriel 38, Q Ferreira 43; D P Viljoen 2/42).

We arrived at Harare South on the Thursday morning to find the wicket was underprepared after a lot of rain the week before. The groundsman was unsure of when the game was, having marked the wrong day on his calendar, but all the ground staff were there.

We started about an hour and 40 minutes late, and won the toss on a rather soft wicket and elected to bowl. We did not bowl very well and dropped seven catches. One of their batsmen, Kriel, scored 99, but we dropped him four times. They ended up scoring 295 all out, which was far too much on that wicket. It was soft, and if the bowlers put the ball in the right place it was hard to score. We looked a bit rusty after four weeks off, and did not look match-fit.

Young Brighton Watambwa bowled very well with some good pace, although he took only one wicket in the first innings. Gus Mackay had mumps the week before; he is our main strike bowler who used to get us early wickets, but he didn't take any this time, which was unusual. Nobody else stepped into the gap, which was a bit of a problem. David Mutendera ended up with two wickets, through steady bowling, while Raymond Price took three, although not bowling his best - too many bad balls, again through lack of match practice. I was hoping for better bowling because it was turning a lot on the first day, the ball gripping nicely on the soft surface.

It was just a bad performance by our team on the first day. 200 was the mark we were looking at, but we let them slip, due mainly to the dropped catches. When we went in to bat, our three early batsmen - Trevor Gripper, Gavin Rennie and Doug Marillier - all went out in the first five overs, which set us back badly. They had a good bowler in Rudi Bryson, who has played a lot for South Africa in one-day cricket. He bowled very fast, and even on a slow wicket he was quick through the air.

We recovered a bit thanks to Trevor Madondo and Dirk Viljoen, who put on a partnership of about 50. Madondo then fell to a very dodgy decision, an lbw that hit him right up just below the box, and Viljoen, who looked back to his best form, followed with another lbw. The tail got a few runs - 'Bomber' [Donald] Campbell got 23 - but we crashed to 170 all out, 125 behind, which was quite a lot on that wicket. But we always felt that whatever they got, we could get a draw out of it, although maybe our chances of victory had gone.

We went out to field again, and this time it was much more professional. Our bowling and our fielding were good, although we still dropped three or four catches towards the end of their innings. We bowled them out for 192, which was very useful, and we didn't bat again on the second day due to bad light.

We had the whole of the third day to get 318 to win. Knowing the likes of Gripper and Rennie can bat for quite a long time, we thought that if one of those guys could see it through we had a chance at least of a draw. But, as in the first innings, we lost our first three batsmen very quickly. It was very unexpected, as they are all in good nick, but it was just one of those bad games for the three of them.

Again, Madondo played beautifully, scoring 76 against very quick bowling, a gem of an innings. Northerns had another quick bowler to back up Bryson, van Eedam, and Madondo played him very well. He plays the quicks particularly well, and must be a possibility for the West Indies. He was assisted again by Viljoen, who scored 31 this time and had a good match. Unfortunately both of them got out at a crucial stage, with about 40 overs left in the day; if they had just stayed in after tea for another hour, we would have got the draw. Maybe even a win; we were 90 runs short at the end, with 30 overs remaining.

'Bomber' Campbell played well again, this time with Bryan Strang, and they put on a 50 partnership, Campbell getting 33 and Strang 27. We were 216 all out, and were overall a bit unhappy because we should have got a draw on that wicket. Apart from their two fast bowlers, they only had part-time spinners, so it was a poorer performance than usual for us.

The umpires gave at least 13 lbws in the match; half of them were dodgy in my book, so I don't think the umpires had a great game, especially the South African one. But that's cricket, and you can't really whinge about it.

The groundsman prepared a good strip this time for the one-day game, because he had the three days while we were playing to prepare while we were off the field. Gus Mackay and Doug Marillier opened the batting for us as they have done all season, and they have done really well for us every time. Mackay is a pinch-hitter and he loves the quick stuff, and they can't try to scare him by bowling at his head as in this competition one bouncer per over is allowed. He got 25 in no time, off about 20 balls, and Marillier 35. Everyone seemed to be getting thirties and forties, and the top scorer was Gav Rennie, 64 not out, at number four.

Gripper got 43 very quickly as well, proving he's not just a Test player; he can actually play one-day cricket. In his last two one-day games for our B side he has scored better than a run a ball, batting at three. We got to 256 for five, all our batsmen contributing well in a good team performance.

We thought it was a good score, but Northerns' main batsman was Mike Rindel, who has played a lot of one-day cricket for South Africa opening the batting and is a bit of a pinch-hitter himself. He didn't open this time, which was a mistake on their behalf. We took a couple of early wickets, with Gus Mackay bowling well up front again with Bryan Strang. In their middle order, we got four run-outs, including Rindel and Kriel, who had made runs before, and from then on they were not going to get it. Their one guy Quentin Ferreira, who has played a lot of first-class cricket for Border and has just moved back to Northerns, is a big hitter of the ball and he scared us for a bit; he hit a couple of big sixes and I thought, "If he keeps going we'll be in trouble." But eventually Dirk Viljoen yorked him and they were 206 all out, so it was a fine performance.

Dirk Viljoen bowled very well for two economical wickets. In fact, everyone bowled much better and it looked as if we had got our match practice in the three-day game. I am still convinced that we play much better one-day cricket, both the national side and the B side, because we play a lot more of it; all we do is play league cricket really, and for first-class cricket we have three games a year, which is not enough. We should play at least two a month throughout the season, because in three-day cricket the players get to 20 or 30 and then play big shots. Even one match a month would give us six games a season, not three.

At the end of the season we won six out of six in the one-dayers, which puts us top of the log. Western Province have won the other group, so we will be playing them in the final on 5 February, and we are just waiting to see if we will play them there or here. We are out of the three-day competition, having too many draws in the middle. We played on too many flat pitches, one in Mutare and one at Queens, where we couldn't get a result and played out very boring draws when we needed results. We need four days, actually; on a good wicket four days would get the result. That's something to look at.