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LAYING DOWN THE LAW . . . Heath Streak has outlined how he wants his Chevrons to play

PAARL. – Zimbabwe cricket coach Heath Streak said on Tuesday he wanted his players to play “winning cricket” when they meet South Africa in a one-off day-night Test next week.

“We’d rather lose trying to play a winning brand of cricket than just compete,” said Streak of a Test South Africa are expected to win comfortably.

“The main thing is belief and shaking off that underdog mentality we had,” he said in Paarl, where Zimbabwe began a three-day warm-up match against a South African Invitation team yesterday. Zimbabwe have played just 10 Tests since they last met South Africa in Harare in August 2014, losing nine and drawing one.

“It’s well documented how little Test cricket we play. I think for us it’s less about the type of cricket than about playing at international level. Whether it’s playing Tests or one-day internationals, it’s the gaps in between that are the biggest challenge for us,” said Streak.

The contest with South Africa will be Zimbabwe’s first day-night Test and captain Graeme Cremer admitted: “We haven’t played with a pink ball and we haven’t played a lot under lights.”

Cremer said this week’s day-night match at Boland Park was a crucial part of his team’s preparation for the Test.

“We’ve had two sessions under lights to see how it (the pink ball) reacts. At twilight, when it’s starting to get dark a little more seems to happen off the wicket,” said Cremer.

This warm-up game will give us a good idea of what to expect and there will be lots of discussion before the Test.”

Both Streak and Cremer are looking forward to playing in the first scheduled four-day Test in more than four decades. “The so-called bigger teams will probably have to score a bit quicker and give the lesser teams more opportunities to take wickets.

‘‘The game will move a lot quicker, I think,” said Cremer.

Streak said that with 98 overs a day instead of the usual 90, there would be plenty of time to achieve results.

“With 98 overs a day, it makes it a four-and-a-half day Test and the twilight conditions will be more challenging for batters,” he said.

Cremer said Zimbabwe needed to play consistently well throughout a Test match and avoid the off periods that have cost them previous series.

“We tend to lose Test matches in a certain period, say in an afternoon or in one day of the Test match. But we’ve played a lot of good cricket. It’s usually been the first innings with the batting that we have struggled so we’re hoping to change that.”

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe coach Streak is unsure if four-day matches are the future of Test cricket, but says they will help to level the playing field between the so-called bigger nations and the minnows.

South Africa host Zimbabwe in the first official four-day test at St George’s Park in Port Elizabeth on Boxing Day, a fixture that will also be played as a day-night game.

There will be 98 overs in a day, eight more than in five-day matches, and the follow-on target has been reduced from 200 to 150. Streak believes the playing conditions will force teams to take more risks to engineer a result, playing into the hands of the underdogs.

“In terms of higher and lower ranked (teams), it is much harder to bat a team out (of the game) because in doing so you might make it harder to win the test,” Streak told reporters.

“It is a challenge, though the 98 overs in a day does make it a four-and-a-half day test. It will be interesting and exciting to be part of, hopefully it is something that does work out for the future of test cricket.”

It is a point backed up by his captain Cremer, who feels his side will be in with a better chance of winning tests as it will force opponents to be more daring.

“When the two teams aren’t ranked that close together, the game will move that much quicker, it will be good to watch. What a lot of the so-called bigger teams do (in five-day matches) is bat the other team right out of the game because they know they have the bowlers to bowl them out twice. So now what I think the bigger teams will do is probably try and score a bit quicker, and give the lesser team a lot more opportunity to get wickets,” he said.

The four-day format has not been met with the same enthusiasm by South Africa captain Faf du Plessis.

“I believe some of the great test matches have gone to the last over on day five and that is what is so special about five-day cricket,” he told reporters recently. Four-day or first-class cricket does feel a bit easier, whereas for five days bowlers have to bowl a lot more and batters have to construct much bigger innings.”

Zimbabwe Test squad

Graeme Cremer (captain), Hamilton Masakadza, Craig Ervine, Brendan Taylor, Chamunorwa Chibhabha, Regis Chakabva, Sikandar Raza, Ryan Burl, Tendai Chatara, Blessing Muzarabani, Tendai Chisoro, Peter Moor, Solomon Mire, Kyle Jarvis, Chris Mpofu. – AFP.