Graeme Swann and Chris Tremlett bowled England to an extraordinary innings-and-14-run victory as Sri Lanka collapsed in a barely believable 24.4 overs on the final day in Cardiff

The Bulletin by Andrew McGlashan30-May-2011
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsAndrew Strauss took a sharp catch to remove Tharanga Paranavitana and start Sri Lanka’s rapid demise•Getty Images

Graeme Swann and Chris Tremlett bowled England to an extraordinary innings-and-14-run victory as Sri Lanka collapsed in a barely believable 24.4 overs on the final day in Cardiff. The pair shared eight wickets before Stuart Broad bounced out the last two batsmen to secure one of more remarkable wins in recent memory considering the amount of time lost to rain. Sri Lanka were shell-shocked and couldn’t handle the pressure, losing eight wickets in the final session.When Andrew Strauss declared two overs into the day, having given Ian Bell chance to reach his hundred – after play was delayed until 3pm by heavy morning rain – the summit of England’s ambitions appeared to be taking some psychological points to Lord’s on Friday. However, Tremlett removed both openers before tea to set the nerves jangling, and when Mahela Jayawardene became his third at the start of the final session, panic was beginning to set in the Sri Lankan ranks.Only when they were eight down did the visitors try to erase England’s advantage with any haste as Thisara Perera and Ajantha Mendis put bat to ball, but wickets were never far away against a pumped-up bowling attack. It didn’t matter that Strauss only had three frontline options, with James Anderson suffering a side strain. Tremlett preyed on the batsmen’s insecurities against the short ball, Swann found turn to force frazzled minds into playing loose shots, and then Broad hustled through the final resistance with 26 overs still to play.The merits of Strauss allowing Bell to reach three figures would have been hotly debated had England run out of time at the end, but his bowlers ensured he didn’t have to worry. The door was pushed ajar by Tremlett’s new-ball burst, elevated to the role vacated by Anderson and one he’ll be reluctant to relinquish. He struck with the last ball of his first over when Tharanga Paranavitana edged a low chance to first slip that was well held by the captain.Tillakaratne Dilshan is a player who could have quickly erased the deficit and eased the pressure, but he got into a tangle against a shorter delivery from Tremlett and the chance lobbed back to the bowler. Dilshan was given out straight away but he went to the DRS and replays confirmed a glove. Mahela and Kumar Sangakkara survived until tea with Sri Lanka 33 for 2, yet they gave a false sense of security.Although Tremlett changed ends after the interval, he maintained a probing length which left doubt in the batsman’s mind as to whether to play forward to back. Mahela opted to come onto the front foot and Tremlett’s extra carry ensured another edge carried comfortably to Strauss. England began to sense something could happen.Swann then gave another example of why he’s the world’s best spin bowler. Thilan Samaraweera was caught playing back to one that didn’t bounce and dragged onto the stump. Next, from round the wicket, a beautiful piece of bowling lured Sangakkara into an edge and Strauss snaffled his third edge – this time in the unaccustomed position of slip to the spinner.There was no stopping England or Swann as Farveez Maharoof edged his third ball and again the DRS was fruitless as HotSpot showed a clear edge. However, TV evidence was less clear when Prasanna Jayawardene, the first-innings hero with 112, was given out off a gloved pull. This time it was England who called for the review and although HotSpot wasn’t conclusive, Rod Tucker, the third umpire, went on the noise as he had with Sangakkara’s first-innings dismissal. The subsequent use of Snicko proved he was right again.Sri Lanka aided in their own demise, none more so than Rangana Herath who played a horrid sweep at Swann to be caught in front, leaving the visitors 52 for 8. Perera and Mendis quickly worked out the only chance was to get in front of England and the next two overs brought 20 yet, amazingly for a match were 139 overs were lost to rain, there was plenty of time left.Broad was disappointing in the first innings but when Tremlett was rested he responded with a fierce spell to the lower order. He roughed up Perera who lobbed a chance between three fielders before being brilliantly caught, low down, by Bell at short leg. Two balls later Suranga Lakmal fended another short delivery into the slips. England, four months on from Sydney, were back in victory mode. In contrast, Sri Lanka’s dressing room was full of blank faces and this will take some getting over.

Azhar Mahmood and Martin van Jaarsveld played starring roles as Kent won their Friends Life t20 clash with Surrey by six wickets

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Jun-2011
Scorecard

Azhar Mahmood and Martin van Jaarsveld played starring roles as Kent won their Friends Life t20 clash with Surrey by six wickets. The experienced duo added 112 in 13 overs for Kent’s third wicket after Dirk Nannes had bowled both Rob Key and Joe Denly in his explosive opening over.Surrey’s total of 150 for 4 was based on a stand of 103 in 14 overs by Tom Maynard and Zander de Bruyn which was dominated by 22-year-old Maynard, who hit 76 from 46 balls with four sixes and five fours. But Van Jaarsveld, with a 39-ball 62, and Mahmood – who added 49 from 36 balls to his bowling figures of two for 26 – were equal to the task.Van Jaarsveld was dropped by Stuart Meaker at mid-on when he had made just 13, and then proceeded to take three fours off the same bowler in the sixth over. Mahmood greeted the introduction of leg spinner Chris Schofield by swinging two legside sixes, and the former Pakistan all-rounder later hit further maximums off Gareth Batty and Meaker.Van Jaarsveld eventually mishit Yasir Arafat to mid-wicket in the 15th over and when Mahmood was caught at long off in the next over, it was left to Darren Stevens and Sam Northeast to complete Kent’s comfortable victory.Surrey’s innings made a stuttering start, with Rory Hamilton-Brown and Jason Roy falling cheaply. Hamilton-Brown hit Wahab Riaz straight to point and Roy carved to third man after making just seven.Steven Davies did swing Charl Langeveldt for six, but when he was brilliantly caught for 27 by wicketkeeper Geraint Jones, Surrey were struggling at 38 for 3.Maynard upped the pace by taking two sixes off Adam Ball’s final over and Langeveldt was also driven for six as Maynard went to his half-century in 32 balls, but De Bruyn could not match his partner’s ability to accelerate. Despite coming in during the fifth over and ending on 25 not out, De Bruyn did not hit a single boundary from the 44 balls he faced.Maynard fell in the 19th over, held at long-on off the returning Mahmood, and his efforts at least gave Surrey’s bowlers something to defend.

India’s difficult preparations ahead of the first Test continued as their big-name batting order stumbled against Charl Willoughby after watching Somerset pile up 425 for 3

The Bulletin by Andrew McGlashan at Taunton16-Jul-2011
Scorecard
Charl Willoughby ripped through the Indian top order•Getty Images

India’s difficult preparations ahead of the first Test continued as their big-name batting order stumbled against Charl Willoughby after watching Somerset pile up 425 for 3 at Taunton. Willoughby claimed 5 for 50, including four scalps in his opening spell, and was backed up by his team-mates as the visitors closed on 138 for 8 with the follow-on looming, although the hosts are unlikely to enforce it.Heavy rain then frequent showers delayed play until mid-afternoon and Somerset batted on until shortly before the 100-over allocation of their first innings. It then took the home side less than 18 overs to take more wickets than the visitors managed in 96 as Willoughby, the former South Africa seamer, cut through a star-studded line-up. The home side bowled far better than the Indians, finding a hint of swing, but were aided by some poor shots and not just from players who have been on the sidelines.The Indians began briskly as Gautam Gambhir, returning from the shoulder injury that kept him out of the West Indies tour, collected five confident boundaries. But he seemed in too much of a rush and fell chasing a delivery he could barely reach, edging it to the keeper. Abhinav Mukund, who is set to open the batting in the absence of Virender Sehwag, was more circumspect and didn’t seem happy with his lbw decision which left India 51 for 2 and brought Sachin Tendulkar to the crease.Tendulkar, as with Gambhir and Zaheer Khan, hasn’t played a first-class game since the final Test against South Africa in early January – a gap of more than six months. It showed even from Tendulkar as he had more nervous moments reaching double figures than he would have in getting to a hundred. He survived a close shout for lbw against Alfonso Thomas, then slashed flat-footedly at a wide delivery, but also played a couple of elegant drives.He was beginning to settle and had moved to 26 when he drove at 19-year-old Craig Meschede’s fourth ball and edged through to Jos Buttler. It was Meschede’s maiden first-class wicket and one he’ll be able to regale stories about for years to come. He might be seeking out Tendulkar to sign the match ball.By then, the Indians had already lost other senior batsmen. Rahul Dravid edged an uncharacteristically airy drive to second slip and Willoughby had his fourth wicket when Yuvraj Singh was trapped lbw for a duck. Willoughby’s performance showed the value of a left-arm seamer which is a variation England are missing in their attack after the retirement of Ryan Sidebottom.After Tendulkar’s departure the slide continued as Wriddhiman Saha fell to Peter Trego without scoring. Following a brief recovery Zaheer Khan lost his middle stump when he played back to Thomas and Amit Mishra spooned to point to give Willoughby his five-wicket haul. Suresh Raina at least remained firm until the close but it wasn’t a distinguished performance.Earlier, the Indian bowlers had only managed to add one further scalp as Arul Suppiah was removed for a career-best 156. Zaheer and Sreesanth were both given another bowl, the former to try to find rhythm ahead of the Test and the latter to try and force his way into contention. It was Sreesanth who broke through when Suppiah, having passed his previous best of 151, edged to first slip where Dravid held a low catch.However, the visitor’s intensity was well down and they were happy to wait for Somerset’s declaration. Mishra, back on the field after taking a blow on the finger yesterday, continued to have trouble with no-balls, taking his tally to 12 for the innings. There was was also some friendly part-time spin served up by Raina and Yuvraj.Chris Jones, a 20-year-old batsman starting to force his way into the first eleven, took advantage to register a confident half-century from 69 balls and James Hildreth, the England Lions captain, eased his way to 30 off 28 balls include a huge six over long-on off Mishra. The presumption was that the Indians would also cash in on good batting conditions, but Andrew Strauss will have liked what he saw while standing at first slip.

Leicestershire’s Friends Life t20 win on Saturday and subsequent path to the Champions League Twenty20 will provide a huge boost – especially financially – to the county

Richard Sydenham28-Aug-2011Leicestershire have not had much to celebrate over the past year with boardroom unrest, heavy financial losses and defeats on the field. But their Friends Life t20 win on Saturday and subsequent path to the Champions League Twenty20 will provide a huge boost – especially financially.The Foxes condemned Somerset to a third runners-up prize in as many years under the lights at Edgbaston, and the club and players now stand to pocket at least £500,000 in fees and sponsorship if they can progress from an initial six-team qualifying event and enter the main Champions League in India next month.Handouts from the England and Wales Cricket Board – which received a central payment for the English participation – have already been agreed, while commercial opportunities are there for the taking, though Leicestershire will need to be one of the three teams that progress to the main draw to exploit the opportunity substantially.”It’s been a struggle for us,” Mike Siddall, the Leicestershire chief executive, told ESPNcricinfo after the final. “We lost £400,000 last year and are having to claw our way back from that. It’s been really tough but we’ve had a lot of help from our sponsors. We’ve also had donations from other people so we have got the cash flow sorted out but it is still tough for us, especially to hold on to our players. But we are fighting and this triumph shows we can take on the big boys on the field and come out on top.”Winning this tournament has been absolutely brilliant. If we can make some more money from the Champions League it goes a long way to repairing the damage from the loss of last year.”The publicity from Twenty20 is unbelievable with finals day on Sky TV (and around the world also). There is so much to be gained from the publicity, which means so much for a club like us, which is bottom of the Second Division in the County Championship (46 points adrift of the next club).”Siddall said that the ECB has agreed to disperse a participation fee of $200,000 each to both Leicestershire and Somerset. If either side progresses from the qualifiers into to the main Champions League, then a further $200,000 will be paid by the ECB.”We will share that with the players and they will get a larger share than the club,” Siddall said. “The players have also got £140,000 for winning the tournament and that’s just for the players.”We get £60,000 for winning it, plus another £25,000 from the ECB so it’s worth a lot for a county like ourselves.”But the bottom line as far as the Champions League goes is what we make of it and how we tap into the various opportunities out there. We don’t know what the event will bring yet but there are possibilities there. Maybe there will be Indian companies who will want to get on our shirts – and I’m sure there will be – so we will be investigating that over the next few weeks.”We’re new to this. Somerset have been there before so I’ll be picking their brains before we go to see how they maximised their income from it before.One of Leicestershire’s overseas players Pakistan all-rounder Abdul Razzaq faces an anxious wait to discover whether he will be granted a visa by the Indian government, which may not be as easy as the player apparently thinks, given the frosty relations between the border nations in recent times. But Siddall is optimistic.”Abdul tells me he won’t have any problem getting a visa, so we’ll put that to the test. He’s going back to Pakistan next week. He will have to sort out his own visa as his passport will be over there, but he’s been to India before and he’s confident he can get a visa so we will put our faith in him.”I’ve not investigated all the possibilities just yet but I would have thought that if there is a player in your squad who can’t get a visa you must be able to bring in another player. We will have to see.”Siddall’s satisfaction at his team’s ‘Passage to India’ and the subsequent financial boost is tempered by his own frustrations at the Champions League’s format which he feels is unfair to the English qualifiers.”I don’t think it’s right at all that we have won our Twenty20 and still have to play a qualifying tournament,” Siddall said. “I think the rules are very much biased to the Indian sides. The Aussies also go straight in so there is clearly a nice, cosy agreement there.”But they have invited us to participate and it’s their tournament. They make the rules and we have to abide by them. All the counties agreed that we would have to go into a qualifying tournament as a way into the Champions League.”I do think the English sides should go straight in though. But it will give us more motivation. Wouldn’t it be great if Somerset and ourselves made it straight into the main tournament?”He would know privately, though, that the fact the ECB are not shareholders of the tournament – unlike the boards of India, Australia and South Africa – is weighted against any English qualifier now or in the foreseeable future.Leicestershire take on Trinidad & Tobago – without Kieron Pollard – and Sri Lankan team Ruhuna in their qualifying group B, while Somerset join Auckland and the Kolkata Knight Riders in group A. The qualifiers will be played from September 19-21.

Steve Snell, who was released by Gloucestershire in 2010, hopes he can show counties what he’s got in the Champions League Twenty20

Andrew McGlashan20-Sep-2011It may not have been one of the marquee ties of the Champions League Twenty20, but there were still nine cricketers with international experience on display as Auckland took on Somerset. However, the match-winner was a player who doesn’t have a permanent first-class team and has had to consider a new career.Even Steve Snell called himself the “third-choice” keeper as he soaked up the occasion after a nerveless 34 off 24 balls which helped Somerset home by four wickets with Alfonso Thomas hitting the vital final run. Alongside James Hildreth, who until recently was pushing for an England place, he added 61 in eight overs in a match where most batsmen struggled.”We perhaps played a little more sensibly than the others,” Snell told ESPNcricinfo shortly after his innings. “I’d have been pretty disappointed if we didn’t win that after the partnership we had. We also knew that the pressure was really on Auckland because it was an absolute must-win for them.”Somerset only arrived in Hyderabad on September 19 having played the CB40 final at Lord’s on September 17, but Snell believes the whirlwind journey has helped. “It’s been non-stop; we didn’t have time for a training session when we arrived and just had a game of water polo this morning but it meant expectations were low from outside the team. However, the side themselves were always confident they could win.”Snell’s professional career has been on hold for a year since he was released by Gloucestershire at the end of the 2010 season having played for them since 2005. He spent most of the 2011 summer playing Minor Counties cricket for Hertfordshire . “I thought my one-day statistics were pretty good,” he said. “I felt pretty hard done by when I was let go [by Gloucestershire]; it was quite a shock. Hopefully this tournament gives me a chance to show counties what I’ve got.”The victory has put the county in with a good chance of qualifying for the lucrative main draw, but if Somerset do go through Snell has no guarantee of being there if Craig Kieswetter and Jos Buttler join up after England duty. “I’m not sure of the rules, and whether I’d be allowed to stay, but hopefully I’ve left them with some tough decisions,” he said.

Shane Watson, the Australia allrounder, has questioned whether his body will be able to handle the rigours of bowling regularly and opening the batting

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Oct-2011Shane Watson, the Australia allrounder, has questioned whether his body will be able to handle the rigours of bowling regularly and opening the batting, and suggested he may have to shift down the order to compensate. Watson has been surprisingly successful the top of the order for Australia over the last couple of years and had previously rejected the possibility of a return to the middle order, but is rethinking his options after the recent tour of Sri Lanka.”My role in the team has changed,” Watson told the . “I have additional bowling demands and I do have to consider whether my body will be able to handle it. I need to think about what will be the best for the team, and how to get the best out of myself, moving ahead.”I will continue to talk to [captain] Michael Clarke about it, but having just gone through the Sri Lanka series with that extra workload, this is the time I am thinking about it more.”Watson, newly promoted to vice-captain, bowled 75 overs in the three Tests in Sri Lanka, a substantial increase per game compared to the 76 overs he bowled across the five Ashes Tests last summer. His batting also appeared to suffer as a result. He made just 85 runs against Sri Lanka at an average of 17.40. In the Ashes series, he was Australia’s second leading run-scorer with 435 at 48.33.In order to protect him for international cricket – Australia play South Africa and India later this year – Cricket Australia has placed a bowling ban on him for the duration of the Champions League Twenty20, where Watson is playing for New South Wales.Watson is also set to release his autobiography, , in two days time, in which he reveals that CA told him to give up bowling in 2007 due to his constant injuries. His subsequent decision to seek an outside opinion was the reason he was able to get back to his best form and keep bowling, and “is the only reason I wrote the book”, Watson said.”I know from speaking to a number of athletes that the information they are getting is often not the best thing for them to get fit constantly. Sometimes you have to look outside to be able to find it. There would have been a number of people who found themselves in my situation and moved on to something else, but it is not always a dead-end.”It was former Australian Football League physio Victor Popov that Watson turned to for help, a move that ultimately paid off for Watson and Australia: “These guys [at CA] were doing their best to help me but when it came down to it, they were giving up on me … it doesn’t get much worse than being told by your team’s medical experts that maybe you might never bowl again.”In the end, I couldn’t handle it and I didn’t go out of my apartment for about three weeks, apart from seeing Victor … I cried quite a bit. I felt like I was just about at the end of it, especially as an all-rounder.”I was 26 and it felt like I was never going to realise my dreams … I knew that so many other people in the world have a life that’s 50,000 times harder than I’ve ever had. But I was in a spiral and, when you’re like that, the only thing that matters is what’s going on in your own life.”

England women claimed a series whitewash with a five wicket victory over South Africa at Senwes Park

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Oct-2011
Scorecard
England Women claimed a series whitewash with a five-wicket victory over South Africa at Senwes Park.Charlotte Edwards won the toss and inserted South Africa for the final match of the one-day international series. Jenny Gunn ensured the hosts could not settle in the middle as she trapped Shandre Fritz in front leaving South Africa on 39 for 1 in the eighth over.Tight spells from Danielle Hazell and Laura Marsh built the pressure in the middle and set things up for Arran Brindle (2 for 20) and Heather Knight (2 for 15) to force a middle order collapse. Brindle and Knight took four wickets in 24 balls as South Africa struggled to build the runs and were left on 103 for 6 after 28 overs.Having opened the attack, Georgia Elwiss returned in the final overs to claim her first international wicket as Sunette Loubser was caught behind by Tammy Beaumont. Four balls later the hosts were reduced to 144 for 8 through the quick hands of Beaumont. Sarah Taylor then claimed the run-out of Denisha Devnarain and with five balls remaining South Africa hung on to post a total of 181 for 9 from their 50 overs.As England set about the chase they suffered a setback losing both Edwards and Danielle Wyatt in the first five overs. Edwards was bowled round her legs and Wyatt was caught as she scooped to mid-off.Taylor attempted to rebuild with Lydia Greenway but was caught behind trying to glance to third man, then in the following over Brindle went leg before wicket, leaving England on 42 for 4.Fifteen overs in Knight joined Greenway to resurrect the innings and put on a solid 87-run partnership before Player-of-the-Series Greenway was caught trying to scoop over mid-off.Knight went on to knock off the runs with Gunn in an unbeaten partnership of 54 as England claimed a five-wicket victory with seven overs to spare.”It was a good win, great to finish the series three nil, another good team performance,” Knight said. “I enjoyed going into the new role of batting at No. 6 and it was good to get some runs. It was brilliant to bat out there with Jenny and Lydia and I was pleased to be able to finish the game off. It was a good feeling to get my first not out for England.”Arran and I established a good partnership in the middle, I think she bowled really well and I backed her up. It was pleasing to get a couple of wickets.””It’s great to win the series three nil, that’s what we came out here to do so I’m really pleased,” captain Edwards said. “It was our best bowling and fielding performance of the trip so far and I thought we stuck at it with the bat. Although we lost early wickets Heather Knight and Lydia put on a really good partnership.”People have stood up, especially the bowlers, who have got better and better throughout the trip which bodes well for the Twenty20 series. We’ll take momentum from this as we move into the Twenty20 series on Thursday, which I’m sure will be a high-scoring affair.”England play the first Twenty20 of the three-match series against South Africa on Thursday October 27.

At the end of his first full day of first-class cricket in three years, Ashish Nehra found himself pleased – and sore – at having survived 16 overs of bowling

Sharda Ugra19-Nov-2011At the end of his first full day of first-class cricket in three years, Ashish Nehra found himself pleased – and sore – at having survived 16 overs of bowling on the Feroz Shah Kotla’s eccentric wicket in Delhi’s Ranji Trophy match against Tamil Nadu.”I’ve been bowling in the nets and training for weeks now and thought that it would be better to play in a match and see how I can do,” Nehra told ESPNcricinfo. “If this match goes fine, I will be able to play in least three of Delhi’s six matches.”Nehra’s last four-day game for Delhi was against Hyderabad in early November 2008. His return at the Kotla, with its early morning assistance for swing and general low bounce for the rest of the day, had gone well. Nehra said that it was only in the short three-over burst at the end of the day, “that I began to get a bit tight.” After stumps, Nehra spent close to two-and-a-half hours cooling down and stretching.The advantage of an eight-day gap between the fixtures against Tamil Nadu and Baroda has encouraged Nehra to assess his fitness in the four-day game. “It’s not that I don’t want to play in the longer version of the game, to say that is not right, I would love to play it if I could,” he said. “I know my body cannot handle two four-day games with a gap of only three days between them. It’s not the bowling that is a problem, it’s the 90 overs in the field that in the past, have caused strains and injuries … It is no fun sitting at home and not playing, only training and bowling in the nets.”Delhi captain Mithun Manhas said Nehra’s advice helped the team’s two younger pacemen, Parvinder Awana and Pradeep Sangwan. “It is always good to have a player’s of Ashish’s experience around and it eggs the younger bowlers on.”Nehra’s last match for India was the World Cup semi-final against Pakistan during which he broke the fingers on his right hand while diving for the ball. It required surgery in five places and bone grafts from his wrist. At the Kotla on Friday, he dived on the field once more. “I did not feel under pressure at the start of the day, but I was thinking, ‘will I be okay, will everything go well?’ And so far it has. Now let’s see what happens.”Nehra made his comeback to the Indian team in September 2009 after a gap of four years. In the run-up to the World Cup, he became India’s highest wicket-taker in limited-overs in the previous two years, with 78 wickets in both ODIs and T20 and was part of World Cup-winning squad. After his post-World Cup return from injury, Nehra was disappointed to neither be picked for the two ODI series against England nor be among the BCCI’s list of centrally contracted players. Of the World Cup-winning team, only Nehra and Yusuf Pathan have not been awarded BCCI contracts.

The second day of the Sheffield Shield clash between Western Australia and South Australia in Perth was washed out without a ball being bowled

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Dec-2011
ScorecardThe second day of the Sheffield Shield clash between Western Australia and South Australia in Perth was washed out without a ball being bowled. The Warriors will resume on the third day with a lead of 90 after they skittled the Redbacks for 93 on the opening day.South Australia’s coach, Darren Berry, said his team had put in an embarrassing performance on the first day.”We lacked a bit of commitment with the bat and I think we played at too many balls which we could have left alone,” Berry told reporters in Perth. “There’s no excuses from us … it wasn’t about the wicket, we just batted badly. It’s one thing to get knocked over with the bat, but I think we were really poor with the ball as well.”

After the innings and 301-run defeat in the one-off Test against New Zealand, Zimbabwe are preparing skill-wise and mentally to compete in the limited-overs leg of the tour, Regis Chakabva has said

Firdose Moonda31-Jan-2012Zimbabwe’s innings and 301-run defeat in their one-off Test against New Zealand represents, in numerical terms, the massive gulf between them and the next tier of the Test playing world. In more literal ones, it symbolises a significant stride backward for a nation that made a respectable comeback to Test cricket last year.Having seemingly built up the ability to compete and even sometimes win, their progress was smashed to smithereens on a single day. But, take into account that it was their maiden voyage from home since their return to the Test fold and the hard edges of how badly they performed are somewhat softened. “For most of us, it’s our first tour in New Zealand but as professionals we are expected to adapt,” Regis Chakabva told ESPNcricinfo. “It would have been disappointing to lose like that, no matter what conditions we played in.”Chakabva is the only Zimbabwe batsmen who could walk away from the match claiming to understand New Zealand’s pitches. His 63 in the second innings was the highest score and most accomplished performance in an otherwise abysmal Zimbabwe showing. In his typically unassuming style, Chakabva has not read too much into the effort and given the result, he probably can’t.”All our batsmen are good players, it just didn’t happen for them on the day,” he said. “I didn’t do too much differently or make too many adjustments; I just tried to stick around as long as possible. Once the ball got older it was easier, it was a good batting pitch.”If there was an area Chakabva led the way in, it was mindset. Instead of panic, even though he walked in to bat with the score on 12 for 5, he showed rare grit, something Alan Butcher has tried to develop in his players since he took over as coach. Butcher has long lamented that Zimbabwe are quick to get spooked. Tell them the pitch will be difficult to bat on and they will struggle with shot selection, tell them someone is a good bowler and they will crumble at the sight of him, tell them they have to put in a respectable performance away from home and the pressure will cause them to melt.It seemed to be the case in Napier but Chakabva said the squad were not affected by outside influences. Even though they were aware of what was expected of them, they tried to create an environment of calm in the lead up to the match. “We weren’t under that much pressure to do well, we knew it wouldn’t be easy but we were aware of the situation and what we needed to,” he said, following it up with a simple enough explanation for what went wrong. “We just didn’t do well.”With Chris Martin doing most of the demolition job, it would appear that Zimbabwe were equally outdone by a quality fast bowler as they were by conditions that suited him. Chakabva said that was not the case.Four seamers, he said, were not the problem. “I wouldn’t say they have a fearsome attack, they are very good but not fearsome.” Neither was the strip. “The wicket had more grass than usual but we have a ground at Harare, the country club, which is also bowler friendly, with more bounce. We have seen pitches like this before.”Zimbabwe have had five days to prepare for the limited-overs leg of the series, instead of three, and Chakabva said they have worked on everything from “one-day cricketing skills” to “getting our minds ready”.Far from sulking, Chakabva said they are “enjoying” the trip. While taking in the sights and sounds of a place most of them have never been to before, they have also been reminded that they still have a job to do and Chakabva said they will do it properly. “We will be more competitive, we are working hard and we want to represent our country well. Like Brendan Taylor said, we want to show the world we can play.”