Tony Becca - FROM THE BOUNDARY THE FIRST Test between the West Indies and Zimbabwe ended in high drama in Harare on Saturday with the Windies, thanks to the experienced Ridley Jacobs and the inexperienced Fidel Edwards, hanging on for dear life and escaping with a draw.
Going into the match as hot favourites, the West Indies were outgunned in every department of the game batting, bowling, fielding, running between the wickets, and captaincy.
They must thank their lucky stars that with nine wickets down, 11.5 overs to go and Zimbabwe smelling victory and moving in for the kill, a defiant Jacobs and a plucky Edwards, who defended stubbornly while facing 33 deliveries, who batted out the last over with every fielder around his bat, stood in the breach and prevented what would have been not only a stinging defeat, but also a real embarrassment.
WI OFF TO GOOD START
Bowling first after losing the toss and with the scoreboard reading 58 for three and 154 for five, the West Indies got off to a wonderful start before Zimbabwe hit back, posted 507 for nine declared and went on to dominate the game to such an extent that they deserved to have won it.
Unfortunately for Zimbabwe, they did not win it and with only one match to go, the West Indies could well win that one, win the series, and go into South Africa with their pride, or at least some of it, still intact.
To win in Bulawayo, however, the West Indies will have to be twice as good as they were in Harare not so much because Zimbabwe are that good or were that good in Harare but because the West Indies were that bad.
PATHETIC BOWLING
Apart from young Edwards, the West Indies bowling in the first innings was pathetic although Corey Collymore and Vasbert Drakes were better the second time around. Even though Edwards produced a few overs of fire the bowling was only a shade better in the second innings and unlike Zimbabwe who were brilliant in the field, the West Indies lacked urgency - so much so that but for one superb catch by Christopher Gayle and another good one by Daren Ganga, the less said, the better.
With offspinner Omari Banks apparently ill and unavailable, with the bowlers relatively greenhorns as far as Test cricket is concerned and with the attack one short because of the injury to Jerome Taylor early in the proceedings, the real disappointment, however, was the batting particularly against the slow, left-arm spin of Ray Price who preened himself with six wickets in the first innings and four in the second.
Price is no world-beater. He flighted the ball well, however, he spun it appreciably, he varied his pace and his length reasonably well, and in doing so, he reduced the West Indies batsmen to pushing and prodding, groping and kicking, and none more so than Jacobs in the first innings, Ramnaresh Sarwan, and Shivnarine Chanderpaul.
In doing nothing more than what good slow bowlers do, Price confused the batsmen in such a way that they appeared nervous so nervous that Gayle aimed a powerful drive at a wide delivery and edged a catch to the wicketkeeper, and Ganga, who batted so well in the first innings, danced down the pitch to a delivery pitched middle-and-leg, attempted to drive a legspinner through the onside and was bowled offstump.
TERRIBLE STROKES
Both were terrible strokes, but nothing in comparison to one by Sarwan.
With Price beating him time and time again, with Trevor Gripper deceiving him a few times, Sarwan, in desperation, charged the part-time offspinner, swung wildly, missed the ball and was stumped.
The West Indies batsmen did not have a clue against Price and although he was blessed with rough patches before the left-handers and inches outside the right-handers' legstump, that was not the only reason why he was so deadly not when the batsmen appeared just as scared and were just as vulnerable to the gentle spin of the bowler at the other end.
Gripper also made the West Indies batsmen look like novices and with his deliveries pitching on the other side of the pitch and away from the rough patches, there was no excuse for their inability to deal with him.
Price was deadly, not because of any special skill, not because of the pitch, but because he was up against batsmen who, most of them, cannot deal with bowlers who swing the ball or spin the ball.
