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Lawrence Moyo H-Metro Editor
THIS was a play-off that was supposed to steer Zimbabwe from the noisy Associate members who have been fighting to get recognition as equal or (in the case of Ireland) even better cricketing nations than us.
But two matches into the ICC World T20 play-offs and the two warm-up games show that the noise by the Associate members might be justified.

Zimbabwe have been pathetic.

The players, who were so resolute during the strike action back home, have shown little ambition, little fight and seem ready to surrender.

The worst thing is this has not been against defending T20 champions West Indies or on-fire Australia. It is against Ireland, Hong Kong, Netherlands and Afghanistan.

Zimbabwe have been largely lacklustre and sluggish. Here we have a Full Member being forced to play 159,3 overs out of a maximum possible 160 in their four matches against the minnows since arriving in Bangladesh.

The matches against Hong Kong, Ireland and Netherlands were all decided on the final ball while the seven-wicket win over Afghanistan came with three balls remaining.

This alone shows that the Zimbabwe team is accepting that they belong to the same league as Ireland, Netherlands, Hong Kong and Bangladesh.

Television viewers will enjoy T20 matches that produce a full 40 overs of action but that should be a problem for the TV networks.

Zimbabwe have to show they are a league above their current opposition and the current group seems to have fluffed that opportunity.

The play-offs end today and Zimbabwe do not have destiny in their own hands, Ireland enjoy that privilege.

Chances are high that Zimbabwe will be the ONLY Full Member team to miss the second stage of the tournament.

To make matters worse for Zimbabwe, they play against Group B whipping boys United Arab Emirates first, thus allowing Ireland and Netherlands to play the decider fully aware of what to achieve to finish above Brendan Taylor and company.

Ireland do not even need to worry about Zimbabwe, they simply need to win against Netherlands, even if it means going to the Super Over because they are the only team from Group B with a 100 percent record.

The Netherlands are level on points with Zimbabwe and in the event of them beating Ireland, the win has to be comprehensive to benefit from net run rate permutations.

If Ireland miss out on the tournament proper, otherwise known as the Super 10 series, they will have only themselves to blame because Zimbabwe handed them the Group B ticket in the opening game.

Taylor might have done well with the bat and scored an innings high of 59 but he will be remembered for his howler on the last ball of the day as he missed a run out that was presented to him.

How he missed all three stumps from such close range remains a mystery.

Such is the challenge with T20 cricket — there is no margin for error.

Being Taylor, certain media outlets will still make him the Zimbabwe hero, and try to label the match a thriller but the truth is it was a pathetic show by our “mercenaries” who went to Bangladesh under-prepared after boycotting matches for a good three months.

There are no shortcuts to success in sport unless match-fixing comes into play.

QUESTIONABLE CAPTAINCY  
That Taylor is a good cricketer is not in doubt and his two knocks against Ireland and Netherlands have justified his involvement in this year’s IPL but there are questions about his leadership.

Just like in the historic ODI against Bangladesh when newboy Brian Vitori was eyeing a record fifth wicket and Taylor gave the ball to Raymond Price, the problem of allocating the ball persists.

In the match against Netherlands, Taylor inexplicably restricted Tendai Chatara to three overs yet he is by far the best bowler for Zimbabwe in a format where containment is more important.

Against Ireland his four overs went for just 20 runs and he was the most economic. Then against the Netherlands, Chatara’s three overs went for just 14 runs. As if there was a crisis, Taylor even went for a part-timer Hamilton Masakadza whose experimental over cost 11 runs.

Taylor persisted with Panyangara whose four overs cost 38 runs. The two mistakes helped Netherlands post 140/5 despite having been 35/4 in the fifth over.

A 20-over game has no room for experiments and where a bowler is being hit all over the place, there is no need to persist with him.

Yes Panyangara took four wickets but he did not slow down the Netherlands batsmen, they actually enjoyed facing him. And when Zimbabwe struggled to clinch victory, those runs off Masakadza and Panyangara were now costly.

Another questionable decision, which might also involve the coaches, was to promote Elton Chigumbura up the batting order against Netherlands yet there was still Vusi Sibanda to bat.

Sibanda has been an opening batsman and has a T20 strike rate of 94,57 which makes him a better option to bat ahead of Chigumbura.

And when Chigumbura lasted two balls, it was clear a mistake had been made. It’s not even the first time that this experiment with Chigumbura has backfired. So today Zimbabwe might be playing their last match at this year’s ICC WorldT20 and the blame lies squarely with Taylor and his troops.

They showed so much resolve, so much resilience and team effort during the strike but all that is missing in Bangladesh.

Now they have given the noisy Associate Members every reason to seek being placed in the same group with Zimbabwe — either as Full Members or Associates.