da betcris： The Zimbabwe cricket team stepped up their preparations for the SecondTest against India at the match venue with both the captain HeathStreak and coach Carl Rackemann confident that the side will put up amore polished performance than they did in
Larry Moyo14-Jun-2001The Zimbabwe cricket team stepped up their preparations for the SecondTest against India at the match venue with both the captain HeathStreak and coach Carl Rackemann confident that the side will put up amore polished performance than they did in the First Test.The side had extensive practice in the nets with the ball and bat, andalso did a lot of fielding practice. Zimbabwe batted woefully in thefirst innings of the Queen’s Test and were dismissed for a mere 173, arecord low for the venue. The bowlers then struggled with the Indiantail, resulting in the tourists taking a commanding 145-run lead.India went on to win the match by eight wickets to take a 1-0 lead inthe two-match Zimbabwe Sun series.It was India’s first away win in 15 years and also their first Testwin in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe lost two frontline bowlers, Streak and HenryOlonga, a last-minute replacement for Travis Friend, in the match andhad only three bowlers for India’s second innings.Streak and Friend are back in the squad for the Second Test. Streakwas confident that he would be in a position to play. “I am giving itone more day of rest before I go flat out in the nets. It should befine. Our physiotherapist (Amato Machikicho) is quietly confident andI also had an orthopedic surgeon have a look at it in Bulawayo and hewas pretty certain that it should be fine.”Streak added that Friend had responded well to treatment aftersuffering a muscle strain, which forced him to pull out of theBulawayo Test on the eve of the opening day.”Friend looks good. He was in the nets today and he is bowling withsome good pace. It looks as though he is fully fit for the game.Hopefully he wakes up tomorrow feeling good and we won’t have asimilar problem like we had in Bulawayo.”Streak said that although they have always played under pressure, thistime they were under more pressure to try and level the series. “Being1-0 down, we are under more pressure to try and pull it back. Werealized where we had our downfall and the guys are working very hardin the nets to try and rectify that. We batted badly in the firstinnings. We hope to put it right in this Test and we are ready to go.”The Zimbabwe captain felt that they could have restricted India to asmaller first-innings total than the 318 they made. India had slumpedto 178 for six after the dismissal of leading batsman Sachin Tendulkarin the 53rd over. But they were allowed to bat for another 36 overs inwhich spinner Harbhajan Singh, coming in at number nine, made hishighest Test score of 66. It was India’s second highest contributionafter the 74 by Tendulkar.”Obviously we always realized that their top order was the danger andwe really worked hard but I think that the loss of Henry Olonga put anextra load of work on the bowlers. We let Harbhajan Singh get awaywith a bit more than we should have, which allowed their tail to wag.Hopefully we won’t let that happen again with a better balanced side,without any injuries.”Rackemann was impressed with his side’s preparations. “Firstly thesepractice wickets are the best I have seen them and that’s a good startfor us. And our worries were the injuries. Henry is going to be outbut Heath (Streak) is coming back. Travis Friend has had a goodbowling session today and he looks good.”So we look like going into the Test without any injury or fitnessworries. Skillwise today has been a very good day in batting, bowlingand fielding. On Thursday we will spent a little bit of time talkingabout the game and the last match in Bulawayo. Our first inningsbatting is high on the list of the things to be discussed. It won’t beas physically demanding, especially for the bowlers playing in thematch.”The Australian coach said that they had learnt a lesson from theBulawayo Test. “I think the batting in the first innings was filledwith poor shot selection, playing a wrong shot to the wrong ball andlacking patience while at the crease and we were also not positive. Weare going to address that. In the second Test we have to bat like wedid in the second innings at Queen’s in both innings.”Rackemann was also disappointed with the way Harbhajan Singh wasallowed to score his 66 from 125 balls, hitting 10 fours and a six.”Principally Harbhajan Singh was the man who did most of the damageand we have to make sure that it does not happen again. We will haveto bowl differently to him than the way we did in Bulawayo and makesure that there is no repeat of that."