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Brendan Taylor

Ricky Zililo Senior Sports Reporter
THE stage is set for the first One Day International game between Zimbabwe and Afghanistan at Bulawayo’s ceremonial home of cricket, Queens Sports Club this morning. Both teams have declared that they are ready for the encounter and cannot wait to hit the ball as they target big scores at a wicket that is said to favour batsmen.

“The last six weeks in camp have been intense and we have been working on all the aspects of the game. Confidence is high among the guys and I am positive that we are going to get big scores tomorrow.

“The wicket at Queens is good for batting and I hope our guys will cash in on that and get big scores to build confidence. We have been encouraging our batsmen to play with lots of freedom but they have to be careful in taking calculated risks,” said Brendan Taylor, the Zimbabwean captain.

He said they expect a tight game against the Asians and would be using the matches that they will play the visitors to prepare for the Triangular Series that will feature South Africa and Australia next month.

For the Afghanistan game, Taylor, who leads a 16-man squad, will pin his batting on Hamilton Masakadza, Sikandar Raza and Vusi Sibanda. They have also included in their squad Regis Chakabva and Timycen Maruma who scored half-centuries when Zimbabwe A beat Afghanistan by seven wickets with two overs to spare in a warm-up match on Tuesday.

Also in line for selection is Donald Tiripano who stands to make his national team debut if chosen for the encounter.
Afghanistan captain Mohamed Nabi has a lot of respect for Zimbabwe and highlighted that he played with some of national team players in the Bangladesh Premier League.

“Zimbabwe are a good side and we saw what they are capable of when we played the warm-up games to acclaimatise. They have some good players like Chigumbura and Hamilton Masakdza who I know from the BPL and I believe they will have a big influence into the game but we are ready for them.

“Before we came here we were in camp at home for a month and everyone is ready for this tour. We want to play good cricket and looking at Queens Sports Club it’s a Test venue and the wicket looks good. I think we will get huge amounts of scores,” said Nabi.

After today’s encounter, the two teams will play their second ODI on Sunday with the third set for Tuesday and wrap up their Bulawayo matches with the last 50-over game on Thursday after which they will travel to Harare to compete in two four-day games.

Teams
Zimbabwe: Brendan Taylor (captain), Hamilton Masakadza, Sikandar Raza, Vusi Sibanda, Timycen Maruma, Malcolm Waller, Elton Chigumbura, Shingirai Masakadza, Sean Williams, Prosper Utseya, Tendai Chatara, Tafadzwa Kamungodzi, Natsai Mushangwe, Regis Chakabva, Donald Tiripano, Tinashe Panyangara.

Afghanistan: Mohammad Nabi (capt), Aftab Alam, Asghar Stanikzai, Dawlat Zadran, Gulbadin Naib, Hashmatullah Shaidi, Javed Ahmadi, Mirwais Ashraf, Nasir Jamal, Noor Ali Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Samiullah Shenwari, Shafiqullah (wk), Shapoor Zadran, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Usman Ghani.