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Sikandar Raza celebrates after getting to hundred on Tuesday

Paul Munyuki Harare Bureau
ZIMBABWE bowling coach Douglas Hondo says the Chevrons need to strike early to make life easier for themselves.

The former Zimbabwe right arm fast-medium bowler said while his men have been doing well in training sessions, they have not been applying themselves fully in matches.

On Tuesday, the Zimbabwe attack failed to penetrate through the New Zealand opening pair of Martin Guptill and Tom Latham as the hosts fell to a 10-wicket loss.

“They’re very good during the training sessions, they do it the right way but the problem is that when it comes to the game situation, they do it in parts, they are not consistent so we’re trying to get the stable to trust their skills,” said Hondo.

“Everyone gets options when bowling, be it to bowl a yoker, length, a bouncer or any other but at the end of the day death bowling is crucial and the bowler should choose an (appropriate) option.

“I always speak to the boys on the type of ball to bowl depending on who’s batting and at what stage of the game they are and we also simulate that with target batting at the sessions but we’ve to keep doing it (training) until they’re confident of themselves.

“As a coach, I feel that they’ve to keep working.”

The record shattering 263-run opening partnership between Latham and Guptill became New Zealand’s highest ever opening stand against Zimbabwe.

It was also the highest opening stand at Harare Sports Club

Hondo believes the Zimbabwe attack should draw lessons from New Zealand’s performance in the morning where they ripped through the hosts’ batting line-up.

An unbeaten ton from number seven Sikandar Raza Butt — his third in this format of the game — was all in vain.

“Our aim is to concede less runs at the death and if we look at the game these days, scores are in their 90s in the last 10 so we have to get wickets early and midway in the game so that when it comes to that stage, we’ll be dealing with the bowlers as the specialists batsmen would be out, making it a lot easier like they did to us yesterday (Tuesday),” said Hondo.

“We were unfortunate yesterday (Tuesday) that Graeme Creamer hit the bat but did not find the edge, Sean Williams started badly and when he caught up, he could not do much, it was just one of those bad days.

“New Zealand batted well and there was nothing our bowlers could do about that.

“Tinashe Panyangara and Chris Mpofu started well but the Kiwis did not give wickets away and we ended up making some errors.

“With the low score we had set, the Black Caps would get the runs easily given the way we were bowling so it was up to us to keep doing what we had to do and unfortunately they did not lose the nerve (New Zealand).

“It’s true we miss someone like (Solomon) Mire, he is someone who can bat and bowl, we called him up and, unfortunately, he has decided to pursue other things and was not available.

“So in that regard we are trying to groom the likes of (Luke) Jongwe and (Neville) Madziva to fill in that gap.”

With the series levelled at 1-1, it gets down to tomorrow’s third and final game at Harare Sports Club.