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There’s a certain dread that goes along with reading the various match reports that appear the day after a Zimbabwe match - you just know that some people will take an inordinate amount of joy from delivering another slew of barbed comments. The surprise this morning, after Zimbabwe’s latest huge defeat, is that not all those comments are aimed at Zimbabwe…

Starting as usual with CricInfo, as it’s always best to get their robust opinions out of the way. While Zimbabwe get some expected and well-deserved criticsm, they also focus on India’s batting performance and give some credit to Zimbabwe’s success in pinning India’s score back:

Zimbabwe routed by 161 runs

A blistering half-century from Mahendra Singh Dhoni and a well-paced effort from Yuvraj Singh gave a pallid Indian batting display some colour, but that was rendered irrelevant by a truly abysmal Zimbabwean batting effort as India romped to a 161-run victory.

Question-marks remain despite the win

…a hard look at the performance today will reveal that the questions raised by Friday’s defeat at the hands of New Zealand have been far from answered. India’s opening bowlers were outstanding in that game, and it was the batting which was dismal, and there was little cheer on that front today.

Chappell backs India’s batsmen

Greg Chappell, the India coach, has defended India’s batting performance which saw them set a modest target of 226 against an inexperienced Zimbabwe bowling attack, saying that criticism from outside was easier than performing in the middle.

Cricket365 also has some positive words for Zimbabwe’s field performance, and joins in the criticism of the batting:

Dhoni and Yuvraj save face for India - Great discipline from Zim

Zimbabwe did an excellent job in restricting India to 226 for 6 in 50 overs during the third game of the Videocon Cup in Harare on Monday. India, trying to comeback after their defeat to New Zealand in their first game of the Tri-Series, never really got their innings off the ground and really should have got a bigger total.

Agarkar and Pathan destroy Zimbabwe

Needing a modest 227 for the win, Zimbabwe capitulated to another record-low for the year, this time a meagre 65. Were it not for a final-wicket stand of 22 between rose amongst the thorns Heath Streak (18 not out), and tail-ender Prosper Utseya (eleven), things could have been embarrassingly worse for the home-side.

Harare’s Herald looks for explanations for what went wrong, and decides lack of match pratice could be Zimbabwe’s big problem:

Zimbabwe go down to India

For the umpteenth time the Zimbabwe cricket team’s glaring lack of match fitness was there for all to see as they slumped to a disappointing 161-run defeat in a Videocon triangular one-day series match against an unimpressive India at Harare Sports Club yesterday. While India and New Zealand are on tour with the majority of their players having just come from competitive international or club cricket, only one Zimbabwean, Heath Streak, was in competitive cricket for English County side Warwickshire prior to the start of Zimbabwe’s 2005-6 season.

Finally, BBC Sport has a few words from ‘exasperated’ Zimbabwe coach Kevin Curran:

India cruise to emphatic victory

Exasperated Zimbabwe coach Kevin Curran was also fiercely critical of his players after the batting debacle. “We lost six wickets in the first 13 overs and you will struggle to come back from that,” he said. “Loose shots cost us dearly. It wasn’t the type of fight I’d like to see in any teams that I coach.” Curran was under no illusions about the size of the task ahead of him. “The work ethic hasn’t been there, and it’s going to be a tough job in the coming months,” he said. “A lot of these players have lacked coaching at this level.”

It would seem that the rest of the tri-series and the following test series against India will be a tough period for Zimbabwe - Curran won’t have any real opportunity to work with the team until after they’re out of the way, but hopefully then the break before 2006’s fixtures will give him the opportunity to work some magic on the team. In the meantime, being a Zimbabwe supporter looks set to continue being more pain than gain.