BARBADOS — The Zimbabwe cricket team will be hoping for a bright start in today’s first match in the Digicel Test Series against the West Indies at Kensington Oval. — Sports Reporter/Barbados Advocate
The clash will mark the first time the team will be playing a Test match in the Caribbean in a decade.
It will also be the first time Zimbabwe will be playing at Kensington Oval and coach Alan Butcher said they were looking forward to the game.
“A tour of the Caribbean is always a great place to come, play cricket and enjoy the region. We came back into Test cricket in 2011 and defeated Bangladesh — which was a great achievement because no one expected us to win.
“Unfortunately, we haven’t played a Test match in over a year. So that makes us look forward to the Test match because we don’t get to play Test matches that often, so they are special,” Butcher said.
He admitted that his team had not been competitive so far in the series in the Caribbean, falling to heavy defeats in the one-day and Twenty20 series.
Butcher noted they were hoping that this Test series would provide a turn-around in their fortunes and that they would at least be competitive against the West Indies.
“I am hoping that we bat better than we did in the one-day series and for us to be competitive and stay in the game. We need to get more runs than we have done in the one-day series; it is as simple as that.
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“A couple of guys have put in decent individual performances, but we haven’t really gotten together as a batting unit to get the totals that we need to challenge the West Indies. That is what I hope for,” Butcher added.
Zimbabwe played to a draw in a three-day tour match against a team from the High Performance Centre and Butcher was pleased with performances of some of his players.
He especially singled out Hamilton Masakadza, Malcolm Waller, Vusumuzi Sibanda and Graeme Cremer who were outstanding for Zimbabwe.
“Masakadza played very well and Sibanda in the second innings and Malcolm Waller had a good innings in the first. But the middle order didn’t contribute as much as I would have liked on what was a good pitch to bat on. I think the whole thing will hinge on whether we can post a good first innings total to make the game competitive,” he added.
