In a rather disappointing one-day match the touring Zimbabweans beat an England Board XI by 74 runs.
In a rather disappointing one-day match the touring Zimbabweans beat an England Board XI by 74 runs. Both teams batted poorly, but the Zimbabweans at least redeemed themselves with a fine performance to win a match their batting had deserved to lose. After being dismissed on quite a good pitch for 175, they fought back to bowl the home side out for 101.
The match was played at the picturesque Beaconsfield ground just to the west of London, in some typically unpicturesque weather. The ground has
short straight boundaries and beyond one is the busy A40 into London; there was much speculation as to whether a batsman would hit a six into it, not
too difficult a feat but only once did anybody come close. Press facilities were disappointing; a telephone line had been provided in a tent, but access
to electricity was distinctly absent.
The home side would in past years have been termed a Minor Counties XI, as it is selected from the best of that competition, but the name has been
changed; perhaps the politically correct lobby decided that ‘minor’ was a derogatory term that had to be eliminated. Captain Steve Foster of Northumberland won the toss and put Zimbabwe in to bat.
Craig Wishart fell without scoring to the first of three excellent catches by Andy Pugh of Devon, but then came a good partnership of 64 between Trevor Gripper (43) and Murray Goodwin (34). Goodwin hooked a big six well over long leg, which would have landed in the A40 had it been straight and played some fine drives before being caught at the wicket. It
was largely downhill from here. Gripper made a suicidal charge down the pitch to the quickish leg-spinner Vyv Pike to be comprehensively stumped.
Alistair Campbell made 14 before being beaten and bowled by Foster, but Dirk Viljoen (22 not out) was left trying to hold together a crumbling tail as
one soft dismissal followed another.
Zimbabwe were dismissed for 175 in the 46th over, with the fast-medium Foster taking three for 39 and Vyv Pike, of Dorset and formerly Gloucestershire, four for 29.
Zimbabwe at least came out fighting with the ball and in the field. Foster and Richard Halsall began steadily for the ECB team but the first wicket fell on 17 when Halsall risked a single to Goodwin in the covers, only to see him throw down the stumps at the bowler’s end from thirty yards away. The second wicket fell in the 14th over with the score still only on 22. Foster tried to break the shackles, with two cover-driven fours in an over off Pommie Mbangwa, but when he was caught at the wicket for 17 in Mbangwa’s next over the Board were 37 for four.
Andy Pugh alone rose to the challenge, and he it was who hit Paul Strang for a powerful six of low trajectory that cannoned into the top of the sightscreen; one or two drivers on the A40 will never appreciate their narrow escape. He hit another fierce straight four that almost decapitated two spectators, and a pull into the press tent that had former Hampshire player Rupert Cox forgetting his past and going to ground, dragging his telephone with him. When he was bowled round his legs for 30, making the
score 84 for five, that was the end of all serious resistance.
His partner David Clarke hung on until the end for 21 not out, but Heath Streak returned to take three quick wickets and the tail collapsed with barely a whimper. Paul Strang took two fine catches in the slips, one off a rebound and the other off a difficult skyer. Streak’s three wickets cost 14 runs, while Bryan Strang also took three, off 9.5 overs, for just 9
runs.
