THE struggling Zimbabwe cricket team will be desperate to avoid a clean sweep across all formats of the game at the hands of West Indies when the two sides meet in the second and final Test at Windsor Park in Dominica starting today.
DANIEL NHAKANISO
The Alan Butcher-coached side has performed dismally on their return to international cricket after almost a year, losing the three-match one-day international series 3-0 and the two match Twenty20 series 2-0.
Still licking the wounds inflicted by their hosts in the shorter formats last week, Zimbabwe’s misery continued when they lost the opening match of the two-match Test series by nine wickets in Barbados.
Today, they face an uphill task to restore some lost pride and will need a significant improvement, especially by their batsman if they are to challenge their hosts gunning for nothing short of a whitewash.
With very little information coming from the Zimbabwean camp during the Caribbean tour, it was not clear if selectors were going to make any changes ahead of the second Test.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Regis Chakabva was, however, reportedly a doubt for the match with a finger injury which he picked up on day two of the first Test.
This could see skipper Brendan Taylor taking over, keeping duties with middle-order batsman Sean Williams coming to bolster the batting department.
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Leg-spinner Graeme Cremer’s place in the side is also under threat following a poor showing in the first Test, although the spin-friendly pitch in Dominica could see him being given another chance.
While Zimbabwe’s bowling department has done reasonably well, it is the batsmen who have let the team down and the pressure will be on openers Tino Mawoyo and Vusi Sibanda, Hamilton Masakadza, Taylor and Craig Ervine to finally get some runs on the board for the team.
Meanwhile, Toby Radford, the West Indies assistant coach, was in bullish mood ahead of the second Test and told the Dominica News Online that his team will be aiming for a whitewash.
“The camp is very confident, but we never take anyone lightly. We beat them in Grenada in the one-dayers, we followed up with the Twenty20 wins in Antigua and we won the first Test last week in Barbados, so things are going the way we want,” Radford said.
“We want to make sure the Zimbabweans don’t win a game on this tour. We want to send them home empty-handed. We have had a really good run in Test cricket this last year – we did well against New Zealand, we did really well in Bangladesh and we would like to follow that up with a complete sweep here as well.”
The three-day victory by nine wickets in Barbados was the fifth in a row for the West Indies.
They will be looking for their sixth consecutive win — going back to August last year when they beat New Zealand in Antigua and Jamaica — and last November when they beat Bangladesh in Dhaka and Khulna.
