Zimbabwe v Pakistan 1st ODI

The Harare Sports Club ground is almost unrecognisable as the same venue as that where the Test match was played earlier this week. An hour before the start, several thousand people were already in attendance, swarming all over the outfield; hospitality tents cover most of the eastern half of the ground, and music is blaring from a nearby tent. It is clearly destined to be a noisy, exciting day, and one hopes that the alcohol does not flow too freely -- there have been some unpleasant incidents in the past, although not yet on the scale encountered in many other parts of the world when crowds get soused.

Pakistan have won the toss and put Zimbabwe in to bat. Zimbabwe are experimenting with a new batting order, with Alistair Campbell opening with Grant Flower. Craig Evans, Paul Strang, Dirk Viljoen and Andrew Whittall come into the side, replacing Gavin Rennie, Bryan Strang, Adam Huckle and the injured Trevor Madondo. Murray Goodwin has also been replaced by a player of the same name but with much shorter hair! Pakistan have left out Saeed Anwar (reason not yet known), Ali Naqvi, Moin Khan and Mushtaq Ahmed for Aamer Sohail, Ijaz Ahmed, Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Akhtar. Shahid, of course, is the scorer of the fastest one-day century, but he only arrived from Pakistan yesterday, and it will be a surprise if he is able to do well without acclimatising, especially to the altitude.

Zimbabwe's main hopes of victory will lie in the weakness of the Pakistani batting, although they may indeed be able to change their style successfully for the one-day game. They will also be relieved that neither of Pakistan's two top spinners, Mushtaq Ahmed or Saqlain Mushtaq, is playing. But accurate predictions at any match involving Pakistan are impossible, and it remains to be seen whether Zimbabwe really have the self-confidence necessary to seize the day.

Lunch report

Zimbabwe 236/6 (50 overs)

Zimbabwe's total leaves this match about as open as any neutral party could hope for. Although it is generally felt that they should have scored more, Runs are not easy to come by on this heavy outfield and in September 236 would have probably been worth about 30 runs more.

The Zimbabwe innings could perhaps be divided into four distinct parts. Firstly, Alistair Campbell set a good pace opening the innings. The crowd thrilled to two fine pulled fours off successive balls from Wasim Akram, and Zimbabwe were cruising at over five runs an over when he got a leading edge checking a drive and presented Azhar Mahmood with an easy return catch.

The innings then became bogged down. Grant Flower, never really looking in touch, was given out by umpire Kevin Barbour, caught at the wicket off an inside edge. Murray Goodwin found it most difficult to get the score moving, even after the barber had relieved him of most of his hair, and he was dropped on 3 and 8 off fairly straight-forward chances to the bowler and mid-off respectively. Andy Flower too never looked in charge and he was caught at the wicket sparring outside the off stump.

The arrival of Guy Whittall ushered in Stage 3, marked by a considerably increased tempo and regular fall of wickets. Whittall got off the mark with a six over fine leg, caught by the fielder about two metres over the boundary. Goodwin finally began to open up with some powerful strokes, until he slogged across the line at Shahid Afridi and was bowled. With the press box situated at long leg and the television reception poor, it was impossible to tell whether he played it on or not. Whittall, dabbing with a diagonal bat outside off stump, lobbed an easy catch to backward point, while Craig Evans, slashing outside the off stump, was caught at the wicket.

The final stage was a good unbroken seventh-wicket stand of 49 between Heath Streak, promoted to number six in view of his burgeoning batting prowess, and Paul Strang. Good it was, but could have been better: the policy appeared to be to slog at everything rather than keep the singles coming, and there were more dot balls, hammered straight at fielders or missed altogether, than are desirable. After three 'hit-and-misses' in the final over, Streak finally made the crowd happy by hammering a glorious straight six off the final ball -- his highest one-day score.

Close of play report

Zimbabwe 236/6 (50 overs); Pakistan 237/6 (47.4 overs). Pakistan won by four wickets.

Generally, Zimbabwe fielded and caught magnificently today. They were sunk by a badly misguided selection policy. We did not know until this afternoon that Paul Strang is still unfit to bowl and was played as a batsman (and superb fielder). This left Zimbabwe with only four genuine bowlers, always a risky policy; when Andrew Whittall had a bad day, disaster was virtually assured. The selectors put their faith in several batsmen who can bowl a bit, and Pakistan took heavy toll of these bits-and-pieces players. Bryan Strang instead of Dirk Viljoen, who was placed at number nine and is certainly no more than a part-time bowler at this level, could scarcely have failed to make a difference.

Even so, with a bit of luck, things might have been different. Aamer Sohail, the eventual Man of the Match, began his innings in a manner one might expect of a kamikaze pilot. He hit two risky fours in the first over and a two in the next he faced, all just clearing the heads of the fielders. Had Aamer gone then, Pakistan would have found it very difficult to recover. His opening partner, Inzamam-ul-Haq, was less fortunate. He hit a gigantic skyer which was very well caught by Pommy Mbangwa on the long leg boundary. Mohammad Wasim was out to an even better catch, lofting a ball over midwicket, and Andrew Whittall had to take it over his shoulder running flat out towards the boundary.

Then Zimbabwe had to bring on their second-string bowlers, and the balance tilted. Aamer Sohail settled down, and Ijaz Ahmed also played some good shots. They were soon dominating the likes of Andrew Whittall and Grant Flower completely, and forced Alistair Campbell to recall Heath Streak. Perhaps this helped to take wickets at the other end; at any rate Ijaz was caught trying to loft a ball from Evans over midwicket, while Aamer steered a catch off the same bowler straight into the gully. Despite these successes, though, Evans' nine overs cost 50 runs.

Zimbabwe had no option but to use part-timers, though, and Murray Goodwin and Viljoen were also brought on to feed the lions. Shahid Afridi, who arrived from Pakistan yesterday, batted well considering his lack of time to acclimatise; after a slow start, he hit Guy Whittall for a six over long-off, and then a powerful blow off Goodwin went far over long-on at the other end. He was eventually superbly caught by Evans at shin height on the deep square leg boundary off a real skimmer. But the match was by now as good as over, Zimbabwe condemned to defeat by their lack of quality bowling. Azhar Mahmood fell, pulling a ball down mid-on's throat, and there was a farcical incident just before the end, when Wasim Akram skyed a ball towards square leg and several players stood and watched it before deciding too late that an attempt had to be made to catch it. The crowd remained generally good-humoured as Pakistan cruised home. Were they drinkers, they would doubtless toast the Zimbabwe selectors.

John Ward

Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com)