Sri Lankans demolish Zimbabwe Academy

From 12 to 14 November the Zimbabwe Cricket Academy, now known as the CFX Academy, played the touring Sri Lanka team at Kwekwe Sports Club. Academy director Gwynne Jones sends us his report.

Day 1 Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat. On a dry wicket with dead grass patches Sri Lanka decided to bat. They had stated beforehand that the wicket would not last two days.

The Academy bowling was wayward to start with, resulting in an onslaught from their openers -- 60 off the first ten overs. However Gary Brent bowled an excellent line outside off stump to a seven-two field. With uneven bounce Sri Lanka were not prepared to take chances but wickets began to fall. In mid-afternoon they had been reduced to 230 for 8 before our bowlers began to tire. Their last two wickets added 67 runs, enabling them to finish on 302 in 91.5 overs. The Academy lost one wicket before the close.

Day 2 The pitch was even drier and there were visible signs of it breaking up. The young Academy students could not handle the uneven bounce and the spin and guile of the Sri Lankan bowlers. Greg lamb and Dirk Viljoen batted well in the middle order but there was little resistance from the other batsmen. The Academy were bowled out for 123. It was not surprising that Sri Lanka enforced the follow-on as the pitch would not have provided them with any worthwhile batting practice for the Test.

The Academy's batting crumbled completely in their second innings against some world-class bowling. Some of Muralitharan's off-spinners were completely unplayable. The pressure exerted by their bowlers forced some bad shots but also some very poor umpiring decisions. The Academy were bowled out for 46, losing by an innings and 123 runs.

Notable Performances

Gary Brent bowled immaculately. His line was excellent just outside off stump to a seven-two field set by the captain Viljoen. His stock ball was the inswinger but he has now developed the outswinger which he can bowl at will. He has shown in this match that he is a much better bowler than he was before going to England.

Greg Lamb was the pick of the batsmen. He has time to play his shots and was very impressive before being adjudged lbw when there was a clear nick audible at the boundary edge.