JULIAN GUYER, Nottingham | Wednesday 5.30pm.
ZIMBABWE may have won two tour matches ahead of the second and final Test which starts here at Trent Bridge on Thursday but they still face real difficulties.
After a comprehensive defeat by an innings and 209 runs at Lord’s, England’s most crushing Test victory for 26 years, the tourists recorded their inaugural first-class victory against county opposition when they beat Yorkshire by 32 runs.
They followed that up with a one-day win in a meaningless match against an MCC side largely made up of average county players and recently retired professionals.
Captain Andy Flower will know better than anyone not to read too much into the Yorkshire result.
For at least 20 years now English counties have rarely fielded full-strength sides against Test opponents and this match was no exception.
Worse still, Zimbabwe’s suspect batting did not show much improvement: they were bowled out for 68 in their second innings against Yorkshire.
However, new opener Guy Whittall made 89 in the first innings and the indications are that this is where he will bat come the Test match.
Both Trevor Gripper and Grant Flower, the tourists only two specialist openers, have been in woeful form. Flower especially has been having an awful summer, averaging just over seven from nine innings. Not that Gripper has been doing much better with a shade over 14 from seven innings.
But they may be spared because former captain Alistair Campbell’s poor run of form has been going on for a lot longer, in his last 60 international innings he has made just two fifties while in his latest four senior innings he has managed just four runs including the dreaded king pair against Yorkshire.
Andy Flower’s suspect wicketkeeping has created yet another dilemma. By his own admission Flower’s display at Lord’s, where he dropped two routine chances, was his worst in Test cricket.
His words indicated that Zimbabwe were ready to give a Test debut to 17-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman Tatenda Taibu.
Zimbabwe’s history as a Test nation can be summed up by the old adage “cricket makes fools of the wisest”. Still it’s hard to see how, even allowing for the positive effect of wounded pride, they can win this Test. Hard but not impossible.
One consolation for Zimbabwe, whatever the result, is that they cannot possibly play any worse than they did at Lord’s. — AFP