National cricket team coach Alan Butcher has said his players were hugely embarrassed by their Napier capitulation inside three days to New Zealand during the lone Test in Napier.
Butchers men were bowled out twice on the third day of the Test on Saturday and lost by an innings and 301 runs, slumping to their lowest Test total, 51, in the process.
They (the players) were embarrassed in the dressing room and they should have been, Butcher told a New Zealand publication, Fairfax News.
They all felt we let ourselves down badly and that we hadnt given a good account of ourselves.
This was Zimbabwes first overseas Test since their readmission in August and despite missing the services of their star batsman Vusi Sibanda fans back home expected them to go down at least with their honour intact.
Expectations were high ahead of the match as they had batted reasonably well in the warm-up game in Gisborne, posting 330 against the New Zealand XI.
Zimbabwe had also performed well in the reverse fixture where they pushed New Zealand till deep into the fifth day in Bulawayo in November last year.
Although Butcher knew it would be hard, he expected his team to at least last all five days.
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Regardless of how the result had gone, it wasnt going to be easy for us to play a Test away from home, having been out of Test cricket for some time, but we hoped we would at least provide five days of competitive cricket. We got nowhere near that.
It was disappointing. It bore no relation to how weve been practising and how weve played in recent times. Not only the batting on Saturday, but I thought we didnt bowl particularly well on the first day. All around I think we were below par and New Zealand played well and took full advantage.
Zimbabwe will now travel to Dunedin for the first of three one-day internationals (ODIs), starting next Tuesday which will be followed by two Twenty20 internationals.
When New Zealand toured Zimbabwe in October last year, Zimbabwe managed to win the last of the three ODIs by chasing 329. Butcher said they needed to replicate that kind of performance.
That will be in their (New Zealands) minds; to know we can compete in a much better fashion than we did in the Test match. Weve got to. If we keep losing like that, then well find ourselves back where we were five or six years ago.
