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Cricket
By Ted Corbett
It is a place where the home team loses regularly as Zimbabwe loses regularly. There is also an easy comparison to be made between Zimbabwe — whose defeat by an innings and 69 runs was their ninth in a row — and the new Test ground. Both are doing their best, both need considerable strengthening before they match the established giants and yet everyone in sight knows that their day is a long way off. It helps no one to keep recounting how bad Zimbabwe is. It is not, contrary to sensational reports in the newspapers here, dozens of good cricketers left behind because of the political needs of the oppressive government. I suspect that, however many crimes he commits against his people, the President Robert Mugabe would prefer his international cricket side to win. Anyone who believes that he sees a benefit in their defeat must believe him to be a stupid man; and a politician who holds office for more than 20 years in the turmoil that is central African government is certainly not that. Today its innings defeat was as certain as the result of a Mugabe election. It began, after the dismissal overnight of Mark Vermeulen for one of the quickest pairs on record, still needing 322 to make England bat again. Stuart Carlisle survived seven overs before he was caught by the heavyweight Robert Key diving at short leg to snap up an inside edge but Dion Ebrahim struggled on until he was third out, the eighth lbw victim for England's bowlers for 55, at 102 just before lunch. His 55 had taken more than two and a half hours yet, paradoxically he looked more uncertain the longer he stayed at the crease. Grant Flower, the only batsman in the side with a Test hundred to his namelasted only four balls after lunch. He was dropped by Ashley Giles in the gully off the third ball from Anderson and bowled by the next delivery trying to turn his cross bat shot into a proper defensive shot. An inside edge directed the ball on to his leg stump and attention to his miserable record in this country. At this point all 14 Zimbabwe wickets had been collected by bowlers whose surname ends in -son: Anderson, Johnson and Harmison. Giles broke this odd sequence when he had Tatendu Taibu caught at silly point before he had time to take root in the way he has done in both Tests. For no reason at all runs suddenly came in heaps. Sean Ervine hit Giles for six and four and with Travis Friend, who produced a series of pleasant shots, put together a fifty stand in 40 minutes. It was a sixth wicket record and the best batting of the day even if it was interspersed with frequent appeals, some more valid than others. The strange sequence was resumed when Ervine edged Harmison, the local lad whose every act was cheered by the big crowd as if he had won the Epsom Derby, into the stumps at 185 for six. Harmison dropped a simple return catch off Friend but the ball ran on to the stumps and dismissed Heath Streak backing up. Hussain called for the new ball but Friend reached fifty with his eighth four and at 228 for eight Zimbabwe had 253, its highest score in four innings. England had two successive victories by an innings for the first time since 1985, but also has plenty of work ahead.
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