THE PLAYER'S VIEW: MARK VERMEULEN

Mark Vermeulen recorded his maiden first-class century, 197, in the Logan Cup match against Midlands played at Kwekwe from 17 to 19 March this year. He talks to John Ward about that match.

JW: Mark, can you first of all describe the Kwekwe ground itself for the match, please?

MV: The ground is a fairly average ground, looking in good condition with all the rain that Zimbabwe has been getting. The facilities there are pretty good: they have astroturf nets for the academy they're trying to start up in the Midlands, and it's looking very good.

It was very wet the day before and the whole ground was under water. We were very lucky to start on that first morning. The track did a bit early in the morning when we won the toss and bowled first. It did a bit for the seamers, but only in the first session, and it really flattened out from then on.

JW: They had a problem with their pitch earlier on in the season, as you'll remember from the Academy's match against the Sri Lankans.

MV: I don't actually know what was wrong with it - I think the grass was dying or something like that. I think it's fine now, good for a three-day game, though four-day cricket I think is the way it should go for first-class cricket, for in three days you struggle to get a result.

JW: So how did things go in their first innings?

MV: In their first innings they got 204, with our spinners doing well, Ian Engelbrecht bowling especially well, and only one of their batsman, Doug Marillier, came off, getting 133 of their runs. That was the main effort for them. Doug's a good player; he backs himself and likes to hit over the top if the ball is there to hit. He likes to play his shots; he's a strokemaker. We didn't tie him down enough for a long enough period for him to make a false stroke. He played a good innings.

JW: And the Matabeleland innings?

MV: We had the last session to bat on the first day and we were 82 for four that evening, so we were in lots of trouble, having lost most of our top order. Then the next day we lost some more quick wickets early doors, and we were 165 for eight, before Matthew Townshend and myself put on 112 for the ninth wicket.

JW: What was the situation when you yourself went in to bat?

MV: There were only a few runs on the board when the first wicket fell and I went in. The pitch wasn't really doing very much and there was only David Mutendera who was bowling with any pace; the other opening bowler wasn't all that quick. They brought in Raymond Price pretty early, and he basically bowled through the whole innings. I just started off slowly; after the weekend before against Manicaland when I thought I was a bit negative, just because it was a longer game, now what I try to do is to back myself to hit the ball, and when I see it in the right place to hit I'm going to play my shots. I've decided that if the ball is in my area I'm going to play my shots, and that's what I did. My first hundred took quite a long time, but my next 97 came off 50-odd balls.

JW: Did you have any idea you were close to 200?

MV: Yes, I did. It was on the scoreboard, I was on 197, but then I flicked one off my legs, in the air but in front of square, and backward square ran across, dived full length and managed to hang on to it. If that had got past him it would have been four runs. But that's the way it goes in cricket: you ride your luck. I did have quite a few chances early on in my innings, so I was quite fortunate to get to 197 anyway. So getting out to a good catch at the end of the day probably justifies it.

JW: What were your most memorable shots?

MV: I played a few nice shots over extra cover: I hit Raymond Price over extra cover for six and the captain also over extra cover for six. I also hit one nearly into the clubhouse, also off the captain. I enjoyed my back-foot shots: I played two back-foot drives off David Mutendera, and even the guys in the slips came to me after the game and said, "Hey, you've got to teach me how to play that shot." It was a back-foot forcing drive which went through the covers for four, and even the guys in the opposing team were impressed with that. Those were the ones I enjoyed the most, the back-foot shots.

JW: And Midlands' second innings?

MV: Midlands went in 88 runs behind and Raymond Price stuck around for about three hours, got himself 76. We managed to get wickets on the other end. They managed to get to 282, which gave them a lead of 294, but because it was a three-day match there wasn't much time to knock off the runs, so we had to push the runs. We went in needing about three an over, so we decided just to consolidate before tea, but unfortunately we didn't score too many runs. Then after tea, leaving us with just one session, we needed four an over. So guys started trying to force the run-rate and there were a few odd mistakes, a few good catches. The game turned and they managed to bowl us all out. We lost our last wicket in the last over. It was a good game.

The way I look at it is this is why we're struggling at the highest level. We're not playing enough of this cricket, as you say yesterday, Matabeleland v Mashonaland. 18 wickets fell in a day, and really that's not good enough. That's why we've got to be playing more and more of this cricket, because guys aren't really used to playing the longer game. I think also from next season there should be four home and away games, so you've got at least eight first-class games, and a final, to make it nine or ten games. That's the only way we're going to improve at the highest level if we play longer cricket, four-day cricket, so the batsmen can get in and not get their hundreds, but their double-hundreds and maybe even their triple-hundreds.

JW: Midlands must have been over the moon, after two heavy defeats and then an unexpected victory.

MV: They were very happy. They tried hard; they've got lots of guts there, they've got a good team spirit and enjoy their cricket, which is a good sign for them. They've also got a couple of youngsters coming through, and if they keep working on it, I'm sure guys will be going to the [CFX] Academy and then coming back again, which is what they're trying to do with their academy: send a couple from the province to the Academy, and when they've finished their year they come back to their own province and play their cricket there.

In Matabeleland we're struggling with our batting at the moment. Because we've got a very young side, we don't know how to play the longer game because it's all crash-boom-bang in Zimbabwe when we're playing one-day cricket all the time. He's out there to play his shots all the time from ball one, so that's where we've struggled as a province, because we've not had the batsmen batting for longer innings. They lose their concentration, and that's where we fall down, because in most games we've bowled sides out cheaply in the first innings and then we haven't been able to capitalise with our batting. And that's where we're falling short.

JW: In your innings yesterday [87], you looked to be batting more confidently than I've ever seen you - most of the time. Obviously that 197 helped.

MV: I'm just working hard, I'm playing straight mainly, keeping it in the V because playing across the line is not really the way to go, especially in the longer game. Just wait for the right ball and then try to play straight down the ground; keep most of it along the ground and basically, as I said, I'm trying to get more positive, so that if the ball's there to hit I'm going to hit it from now on, because I've had enough with just blocking. It's no use just blocking it out, and at the end of the day it doesn't matter how you score them, it's how many you score of them, and that's what counts.

JW: Yesterday you got to about 80 and then you seemed to dry up.

MV: Actually what happened was that they started setting very defensive fields to me; they started having sweepers out on the leg side, so it was quite difficult for me to hit the boundaries from then on. So I just said to my batting partner, "Let's just work the ones and twos," and that's what we started doing. [Not very successfully, though!] I'll be honest with you: my dismissal, the ball before I looked and the fielder was about twenty yards behind square, and I don't know whether he actually moved during the ball or before the ball, but that's what happened, because I purposely hit it in front of square because I knew the fielder was behind square. And then when I looked up he was in front of square, so I had been jooked out by the fielding side there.