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Match abandoned without play - rain. West Indies win series 3-1. Next match: SuperSport Challenge, 2nd Match: 20-23 December.

After being put into bat by the West Indies & seeing openers Vusi Sibanda and Hamilton Masakadza put on an opening partnership of 167 - a record by Zimbabwe in one-day cricket - Zim seemed to have full control of the 4th ODI. A cautious start, which saw Masakadza bat more like this was a Test match, eventually gave way to a period of play in which the pair dealt with the West Indies bowling with aplomb, and left the team in a position where, when the first wicket fell in the 37th over, Zimbabwe should have had time and wickets to see the side to an impressive total.

Unfortunately, that didn't happen. From 167/1 the side collapsed to 232/9 from their 50 overs - Sibanda (96) and Masakadza (80) were the backbone of the innings, but of the remaining players only Brendan Taylor, unbeaten on 26, showed any sort of staying power, as the rest of the side were bowled out in frankly embarassing fashion.

In reply, the West Indies had only to keep their wickets in hand & they knew they were home free. The first ball of their innings cause a shock when Elton Chigumura removed out-of-form Devon Smith, but from there Parchment, Morton, Samuels and Bravo saw the side home with minimal problem. Zimbabwe's bowlers did the job they were required to do, with the spinners restricting scoring mid-innings and Utseya taking 3/40 to be the pick of the bunch, but the sides inability to bat had left them with a total that was too small to defend, and the Windies wrapped up the match - and the series - in the 47th over.

The Queen's Sports Club pitch has presented problems to Zimbabwe's batting several times in recent months - on this occasion, I don't think it's understating the problem to say their inability to handle the pitch has cost them the match. This is something that really needs to be addressed, and soon.
Zimbabwe 232/9 (50 overs; Sibanda 96, Taylor 5/48), West Indies 234/5 (47 overs; Morton 79, Utseya 3/40). West Indies win by 5 wickets, win series 3-1 with 1 to play. Scorecard below the cut. Next match: 5th ODI on Sunday (9th December).

Another bad day at the office for Zimbabwe - after winning the toss and electing to bat, Zimbabwe's batting efforts fell apart around them. The first wicket fell in the 2nd over, and was followed by a procession of others as Zim's batsmen came and went, with most of them failing to make much of an impact. Tatenda Taibu was pick of a bad bunch with 32, while only Keith Dabengwa (26) and Stuart Matsikenyeri (16) making double-figures. The side were bowled out within 38 overs for a score of just 139 - an easy target for the Windies to chase.

As seems to be traditional in this series, Zimbabwe took one early wicket (Devon Smith, in the 5th over), but from there the visitors ran up the required total with little trouble, closing out the match in the 28th over and taking a 2-1 series lead.

Once again, Zim were let down by a poor batting display. How many more of these must we see before the issue is addressed? In this match, Zimbabwe had recognised batsmen down to #7 - all those players have shown at one stage or another that they have the required talent, and that they can do the job required of them - but something, somewhere, just isn't clicking and they can't get any sort of consistency together. I'm no coach, so I can't say how this can be dealt with - that's Robin Brown's job, and hopefully he'll already be working on resolving the problem.
Zimbabwe 139 (37.5 overs; Taibu 32, Taylor 3/18). West Indies 142/4 (27.5 overs; Bravo 45*, Utseya 2/27. West Indies win by 6 wickets, lead series 2-1 with 2 to play. Scorecard below the cut.

West Indies levelled the series against Zimbabwe 1-1 after a commanding performance in Harare - although the loss of captain Chris Gayle to a hamstring injury could have significant consequences for the rest of their tour. Zimbabwe won the toss and elected to field, and gained an early advantage with the dismissal of Devon Smith in the first over, but from there the traffic was mostly one-way as the West Indies treated the Zimbabwean bowlers with far less deference than they had during the first ODI. Runako Morton and Gayle formed the backbone of the image, with a partnership of 120 before Gayle was forced to retire injured, but there were also useful contributions from Samuels and Rampaul that saw the visitors run up an impressive 286 from their 50 overs. Chamu Chibhabha took 2/36 for Zimbabwe, while Ray Price's impressive economy rate of 3.90/over helped ensure the damage wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Zimbabwe's target of 287 was difficult, but not impossible - unfortunately, the side's old bugbear of fragile batting once again proved their downfall. Vusi Sibanda and Brendan Taylor started the innings well enough, with Taylor in particular keeping the scoring up with the required rate - but after he fell to a rush of blood in the 10th over (1/42), it was all downhill as Zimbabwe retreated into their old "bat out the innings" mode - although as it turned out, with wickets falling regularly throughout the innings, they couldn't even manage that. Stuart Matsikenyeri put up more resistance than most, picking up 37 runs, but it wasn't enough to prevent Zimbabwe falling to a massive 110 run loss. If West Indies were guilty of complacency on Friday, they made no such mistakes today, and Zimbabwe paid the price.

With three matches left in the series, there's still time for Zimbabwe to pull a few more surprised out of the hat - but if they want to repeat the heroics of the first ODI, they'll have to try a lot harder than they did today.
West Indies 286/9 (Morton 79, Chibhabha 2/36), Zimbabwe 176 (44.3 overs; Matsikenyeri 37, Lewis 3/43). West Indies win by 110 runs, series tied 1-1 with 3 to play. Full scorecard below the cut.

Zimbabwe were first to bat in Harare, after West Indies won the toss and elected to field, and Zimbabwe suffered from a case of early wobbles that raised the spectre of another batting collapse. Four outstanding performances and two very useful partnerships helped Zimbabwe towards a total they can be proud of, though: first the pairing of Chamu Chibhabha (Zim's top-scorer with 73) and Hamilton Masakdaza, who put on 90 for the 4th wicket, then later Elton Chigumbura and Stuart Matsikenyeri, who combined to put on 89 for the 6th wicket. Zimbabwe finished on 274/8, leaving the Windies needing 275 at 5.5/over from their 50 overs. Chris Gayle was the best of the bunch for the visitors, with 2/35.

In reply, West Indies never really got going - only Shivnarine Chanderpaul, unbeaten on 127, showed any sort of class, while Zimbabwe's bowlers maintained a vice-like grip on the run-rate from the word go. Utseya and Price delivered 20 overs of miserly spin between them, with Chigumbura, Brent, Mazakadza and Chibhabha all chipping in with wickets. Chigumbura was the best of the bunch, with 3/25. The Windies were able to bat out their innings, but they never looked in contention and finished 31 runs short of the target.

And so Zimbabwe gain a morale-boosting win in the series opener, and the right to wave two defiant fingers at their critics. Next up: 2nd ODI in Harare on Sunday. Match commentary are full scorecard below the cut.
Zimbabwe 274/8 (Chibhabha 73, Gayle 2/35), West Indies 244/8 (Chanderpaul 127*, Chigumbura 3/25). Zimbabwe win by 30 runs, lead series 1-0 with 4 to play.

A few quotes from before the match. First up is Windies team manager Clive Lloyd:

“We are taking this tour very seriously. Zimbabwe are looking to regain their Test position and they have done well against some Test sides; so the games will be very tough. We are hoping to meet that challenge and go to South Africa on a winning note.”

Chris Gayle, stand-in captain for the tour in place of Ramnaresh Sarwan, isn't bothered by the extra responsibility of the captaincy, and is well aware of the banana skins that weaker sides can present:

"It’s an extra responsibility on my shoulders, yes, but I am used to that as an opening batsman as I have to lead from the front."

"Returning to Zimbabwe is special for me and evokes several fond memories of past success and celebrations. It was the scene of my maiden Test century in July 2001 (175 at Queen's Sports Club in Bulawayo) and some good one-day knocks too. Naturally, I would love to pick up the rich batting form which I have enjoyed over here on previous tours. However, personal exploits - while very important - will be secondary to team goals. I cannot stress enough that we must not take Zimbabwe for granted. They can beat the best of teams on their day and the last thing we need is to fall victim to a bad case of complacency against a talented unit which has nothing to lose in front of their home crowd.

Zim coach Robin Brown is expecting great things from his charges:

"I think the days of just playing to compete are over. We just have to play our game: use the same principles, the same approach…keep it easy."

"It seems there’s pressure now but we do not have to succumb to pressure because if we do that then we will give it to the West Indies. The last time we played West Indies (at home) we took a 2-1 lead but then the game did not go our way and we ended up losing and so we hope to reverse that. There is nothing better than spending more time on the crease for a batsman and improve on the bowling skill for the bowlers. And that is what the players did in South Africa because they did what we wanted and we came out with a pleasing result. We used the basic techniques and that surely helped the team and so for the series against West Indies we just picked our best 11 players to take to the field."

Finally, Zim captain Prosper Utseya isn't surprised by his recent batting form - he's becoming quite the all-rounder - and is looking forward to the return of Ray Price:

“I have always worked hard on my batting. It was just a matter of time before I delivered. If we look at the league that we (Zimbabwe Select) have been playing in (South Africa) I have been scoring 50’s so I have to continue working hard and maintain the streak.”

“Price is experienced. We share ideas and I’m always learning from him. If I bowl well and he bowls well we can do well, and that’s good for the team.”

ZC's website indicates that the 3rd ODI has been moved from Bulawayo to Harare, and will now take place a day earlier than planned. The current full schedule for the series is:

30 November 2007     1st ODI     Harare Sports Club
2 December 2007      2nd ODI     Harare Sports Club
4 December 2007      3rd ODI     Harare Sports Club
7 December 2007      4th ODI     Queen's Sports Club, Bulawayo
9 December 2007      5th ODI     Queen's Sports Club, Bulawayo

Zimbabwe Cricket - West Indies Schedule

The Barbados Daily Nation reports that there are problems with TV & radio coverage of the West Indies tour, in the Caribbean at least - traditional cricket broadcaster for the region CMC have confirmed they don't hold the broadcast rights for the series, while television station SportMax claim that as they didn't receive notification of the tour until "very late" & that, while discussions were ongoing, their coverage wasn't guaranteed - especially as they were unlikely to make money on the series:

"The issue that we faced is extremely short notice. If we carry it, it will be more for content and less for commercial purposes. It is essentially a cost to carry it. There are also issues picking up signals from Zimbabwe that we've experienced in the past and we're trying to make sure that if we do carry it, there are no issues. The video satellite and link-up is not as easy from Zimbabwe as it is from say Australia or South Africa.

It's about 50-50. It is tough. We already have our content and spending set for the year. This is a cost venture."

Taking those issues in turn: power shortages in Zimbabwe will make any effort to televise the series problematic - I'd like to think ZC will have arranged for generator capacity at the grounds, but that's not the only link in the chain, and it's an unfortunate fact of life in Zimbabwe at the moment. As for the lateness of the tour... yes, the WICB didn't formally confirm the tour until after their security checks were carried out, but the tour has been on the ICC's Future Tours Programme for several years now - surely it's better to work on the assumption that it will go ahead, to avoid being left in this mess when it (shock!) isn't cancelled?

ZC controversially have their own outside broadcast equipment and have in the past provided programming to Zimbabwe Television free of charge, so I expect there will be coverage in Zimbabwe (thereby meeting the ICC's requirement that all matches between Full Member nations must be televised). The problem appears to be seeing that coverage outside Zimbabwe...
Daily Nation - 50-50 chance

And they are: Chris Gayle (capt), Dwayne Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Narsingh Deonarine, Fidel Edwards, Runako Morton, Rawl Lewis, Brenton Parchment, Darren Powell, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Ravi Rampaul, Darren Sammy, Marlon Samuels, Devon Smith, Jerome Taylor.
CricInfo - Parchment earns call-up

The West Indies tour is on, after a security report gave the country the all-clear - although both the security and food situation will remain under review. The itinerary for the tour has also been released - there will be 5 ODIs, as follows:

30 November 2007     1st ODI     Harare Sports Club
2 December 2007      2nd ODI     Harare Sports Club
5 December 2007      3rd ODI     Queen's Sports Club, Bulawayo
7 December 2007      4th ODI     Queen's Sports Club, Bulawayo
9 December 2007      5th ODI     Queen's Sports Club, Bulawayo

ZC had been hoping to arrange a number of 4-day matches with the Windies, but it apparently wasn't possible to reach agreement on this.