Zimbabwe’s sorry performance wilts Flower Grant Flower
Grant Flower

Grant Flower

Bongani Ndlovu, Sports Correspondent
FORMER Zimbabwe opening batsman Grant Flower said it is painful to watch his countrymen performing so badly in the ongoing One Day International series against Pakistan.

Flower, who is the Pakistan batting coach, watched in horror as the tourists demolished Zimbabwe by 244 runs in the fourth ODI at Queens Sports Club yesterday.

Pakistan posted a mammoth 399-1 after winning the toss and electing to bat, while Zimbabwe were bowled out for 155 in their attempted chase. Pakistan lead the five-match series 4-0.

Flower said while he was impressed with his batsmen’s ruthlessness, he was equally hurt by Zimbabwe’s sorry performances.

“It does hurt me quite a lot and it is very disappointing to see. I can see the guys are putting in their best efforts, but when you lose half the team, especially with the resources that Zimbabwe have, it’s hard to be competitive to a very good Pakistan side at the moment. But, hopefully, they can get those things right by the end of the month and everyone is paid and everyone can move forward,” said Flower at yesterday’s post match presser.

He said although there was a lot of talent in Zimbabwe, the most important thing was to get their best players back into the fold.

“There’s a lot of talent here and there’s a lot of talent out there on the field, but they’re making a lot of mistakes and they should get the basics right. They must get their practising right and they must get their best players back,” said Flower.

Asked if he would consider coaching the Chevrons, Flower said: “Never say never! But I’m really enjoying my time in Pakistan and I’m going into my fifth year with them and we’ve got a lot of hard cricket with the World Cup coming up. But if things come right here and the opportunity comes up you just never know,” said Flower.

Zimbabwean all-rounder Donald Tiripano, who scored a career high 44 runs, said the opening batters should apply themselves better and the team should bat and bowl better.

“It’s obviously difficult when your openers don’t bat well. If you don’t get a good platform to get runs against such a bowling attack, you’ll never win the game. It was about making sure that we try and bat the overs and try and get as much runs on the board as possible and ensure we benefit for the future games,” said Tiripano.

He urged his teammates to apply themselves more.

“It’s not like the guys (Pakistan) are bowling anything amazing; it’s about us not applying ourselves. We should ensure when you get a start you bat big. It’s just about our batters getting there and batting through to 50 overs and putting a score which we can defend.

“There are some positives from the series, but not many because we’re doing things in bits and pieces. When someone gets a good start, they don’t convert. When we bowl, we do that in patches. So it’s difficult to say there are many,” Tiripano said.

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