Zimpapers Logo

Mehluli Sibanda in PAARL, South Africa

ZIMBABWE captain Hamilton Masakadza is looking for more ruthlessness from his team in today’s third One Day International cricket match against South Africa at Boland Park in Paarl this afternoon.

The Chevrons have lost the three-match ODI series against Proteas after letting off their hosts at Mangaung Oval in Bloemfontein on Wednesday.

Zimbabwe let South Africa off the hook when they had them at 101/7 only for pace bowler Dale Steyn to score his maiden ODI half century, top scoring with 60 to take the Proteas to 198. Steyn was ruthless with ball in hand, sending down six overs of serious pace to which laid the foundation for leg spinner Imran Tahir to claim six wickets to clean up Zimbabwe for 78, their lowest score against their neighbours to lose by 120 runs.

Masakadza said if there is anything that they have learnt from this tour is that they should be more merciless when given an opportunity.

“I think the biggest point to take is how we’ve stuck it out with the ball, I think the guys have bowled really well. One of the lessons we have learnt is that we have to try and be a little bit ruthless in finishing things off,’’ Masakadza said.

The pitches have come under heavy scrutiny with the Kimberly and Bloemfontein tracks being condemned but Masakadza feels that the batsmen should have applied themselves better at the crease.

“Definitely the wickets weren’t easy but I still felt as a side we could have had a little bit more application with the bat especially in the first game, obviously the second game I thought it was slightly harder but the wickets have been challenging, not exactly what we expected from Kimberly and Bloem but in saying that I still feel we could have batted a lot better,” he said.

Zimbabwe had their only training session ahead of today’s clash at the match venue yesterday with the skipper indicating that there is not much time to work on the areas where they fell short on Wednesday.

“It’s a quick turnaround so you don’t get so much time to sort too many things out, it’s all just about getting your head around it, just get the guys to put it behind them and focus on the next game, focus on the job at hand, different pitch, different conditions, so hopefully we can go a little better this time,’’ Masakadza said.

Zimbabwe played a warm up match in Paarl last year ahead of the four-day Test against South Africa that took place in Port Elizabeth but Masakadza is expecting a different wicket from the one they used.

“I think it’s a totally different wicket from the four-day cricket, I think it will be slightly different because its one day cricket, we expect it not to have as much grass and expect it to be a lot more batter friendly than it was when we came out here  last year,’’ he said.

On what they could attribute the failures with the bat to, he felt that the batsmen have not been able to execute things in the middle, something they were hoping to get right today.

“I think guys have just not been able to execute their skills, a lot of technical errors were exposed in the last game, especially facing Tahir, something that we have spoken about, it’s something that we will try and at least address in the little practice session that we have,’’ Masakadza said.

With not much options to turn to, coach Lalchand Rajput is expected to stick with the experienced batsmen once again and back them to deliver. Solomon Mire, Masakadza, Craig Ervine, Brendan Taylor, Sean Williams and Elton Chigumbura are the men expected to provide the runs for Zimbabwe.

The bowlers have simple been magnificent in the first two ODIs with Kyle Jarvis and Tendai Chatara putting pressure upfront. On Wednesday, the two were complemented by Donald Tiripano and leg spinner Brandon Mavuta. The bowlers will certainly hope that the batsmen will play their part as well this afternoon,

News from the Proteas camp is that skipper Faf du Plessis makes a return to the team after recovering from shoulder injury which saw him miss the first two ODIs with Jean-Paul Duminy leading the team.