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Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Bashir takes 9 wickets and England beats a defiant Zimbabwe by an innings
NOTTINGHAM, England (AP) — Zimbabwe folded inside three days as expected yet made England sweat for its innings win in their one-off test at Trent Bridge on Saturday. In reply to England's 565-6 declared, Zimbabwe was all out for 265 and 255. England won by an innings and 45 runs in a worthy warmup for India's five-test tour starting on June 20. The stark figures don't do justice to a defiant effort by Zimbabwe. Starting its first test matchup with England in 22 years as a severe underdog, Zimbabwe was further handicapped from day one when Richard Ngarava, one of its four seamers, suffered a back spasm after bowling only nine overs and took no further part in the match. England plundered 498-3, its highest ever first-day score in a home test, then declared on the second morning knowing it had to take only 18 wickets without Ngarava batting. After Brian Bennett's brilliant maiden century led Zimbabwe's fightback on Friday, Sean Williams led the charge on Saturday, making England appear out of ideas about how to stop him from reaching his sixth test hundred. It took some luck on video review when Williams was on 88 from 82 balls. He was hit on the knee roll trying to sweep off-spinner Shoaib Bashir and given out. A review showed the ball barely nicking leg stump. Williams left to great applause just before lunch, and Zimbabwe's hopes largely departed with him. Wickets began falling regularly after lunch. Despite a defiant 68-ball 60 from Sikandar Raza, Zimbabwe lost its last six wickets for 109 runs. Bashir took 6-81, his fourth test five-for, and a career-best match haul of 9-143. ___ AP cricket:
Associated Press
24-05-2025
- Sport
- Associated Press
Bashir takes 9 wickets and England beats a defiant Zimbabwe by an innings
NOTTINGHAM, England (AP) — Zimbabwe folded inside three days as expected yet made England sweat for its innings win in their one-off test at Trent Bridge on Saturday. In reply to England's 565-6 declared, Zimbabwe was all out for 265 and 255. England won by an innings and 45 runs in a worthy warmup for India's five-test tour starting on June 20. The stark figures don't do justice to a defiant effort by Zimbabwe. Starting its first test matchup with England in 22 years as a severe underdog, Zimbabwe was further handicapped from day one when Richard Ngarava, one of its four seamers, suffered a back spasm after bowling only nine overs and took no further part in the match. England plundered 498-3, its highest ever first-day score in a home test, then declared on the second morning knowing it had to take only 18 wickets without Ngarava batting. After Brian Bennett's brilliant maiden century led Zimbabwe's fightback on Friday, Sean Williams led the charge on Saturday, making England appear out of ideas about how to stop him from reaching his sixth test hundred. It took some luck on video review when Williams was on 88 from 82 balls. He was hit on the knee roll trying to sweep off-spinner Shoaib Bashir and given out. A review showed the ball barely nicking leg stump. Williams left to great applause just before lunch, and Zimbabwe's hopes largely departed with him. Wickets began falling regularly after lunch. Despite a defiant 68-ball 60 from Sikandar Raza, Zimbabwe lost its last six wickets for 109 runs. Bashir took 6-81, his fourth test five-for, and a career-best match haul of 9-143. ___ AP cricket:
The Guardian
24-05-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Shoaib Bashir runs through Zimbabwe to set up Test win in three days for England
There were periods of resistance, some wonderful shots, and supporters cheering them on from the stands but in the end Zimbabwe could not prevent the inevitable or even reach the fourth day. England, inspired by six wickets from Shoaib Bashir, wrapped up this one-off Test by an innings and 45 runs. The winning moment came 15 minutes or so before tea on day three when Bashir sent down a grubber that pinned Tanaka Chivanga for the simplest of lbw decisions. With the injured Richard Ngarava not appearing for the second innings it meant the tourists were all out for 255 second time around. Much has been made of the value of this Test, whether such a mismatch was even worthy of the name. But for Bashir, whose season began with a largely unsuccessful loan spell at Glamorgan and questions swirling over his Test place, it could scarcely have been more valuable. Operating from the Radcliffe Road End and with the breeze having switched direction from day two, England's stripling off-spinner got the ball to dip and drift to claim career-best figures of six for 81 from 18 overs. Zimbabwe enjoyed a lap of honour at the end and Bashir could have been forgiven for doing the same. It did not go England's way initially, Zimbabwe resuming on 30 for two and getting within touching distance of a wicketless first session. Sean Williams was purring at one end – perhaps looking to reclaim his country's record for the fastest Test century from Brian Bennett the previous day – and with Ben Curran digging in at the other, a frustrating stand of 122 formed. But Bashir eventually prised out Williams on the sweep, lbw for 88, and then profited from a loose drive to cover from Curran after the lunch break. Thereafter only a dashing half-century from Sikandar Raza stood in England's way, Bashir picking off a succession of players and oozing confidence with it. While Sam Cook slightly struggled for impact on his second day in the field, there was another encouraging display from Ben Stokes with the ball. The England captain sent down eight overs of heft and his arm proved golden once more, removing Wessly Madhevere for a sprightly 31. Sign up to The Spin Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers' thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week's action after newsletter promotion Stokes could not quite believe the dismissal, which came courtesy of a spectacular one-handed catch from Harry Brook at slip. More satisfying, however, were the wickets for Bashir and what was a solid workout for his players. India, who named their squad for this summer's marquee Test series earlier in the day, will unquestionably be a step up. Ali Martin's full report to follow …
Times
22-05-2025
- Sport
- Times
Money talks — don't expect worst team to tour England to get another trip
How long was it before the realisation dawned that this was not an equal contest, that it was men against boys, seasoned Test match campaigners against wannabes? Five, six, seven overs? Ben Duckett got himself up and running with a brace of boundaries off Blessing Muzarabani in the eighth over; after that England never looked back. It was help-yourself time for the batsmen, and they duly helped themselves, a task made even easier by an injury to Richard Ngarava, who did not bowl again after lunch. At no stage did this feel like a truly competitive match. Unlike most England Test matches, too, it will have next to no influence on future planning. How can it when it is the equivalent of playing — at
The Guardian
22-05-2025
- Climate
- The Guardian
Zimbabwe come in from cold but left crying for help at early signs of mismatch
Of course the first morning of the summer was the worst morning of the summer. Test cricket, like a bank holiday picnic, is a reliable way to send the English sun running, and Zimbabwe's first day of Test cricket in this country in 22 years started under thick ripples of ominous grey cloud, and in a freezing breeze. In the shop at the bottom of the Radcliffe Road Stand staff were sent running to the stock room to fetch up fresh boxes of beanie hats and hooded tops, as the crowd, caught short by the sudden dip in temperature after weeks of good weather, made an unexpected run on their supplies of winter clothing. Zimbabwe won the toss, which was the last thing that went their way all day. 'We'll have a bowl,' said their captain, Craig Ervine, and it must have seemed like a good idea at the time. Ben Stokes admitted he would have done the same thing himself given the conditions overhead. But Ervine might have been starting to think twice after the first 45 minutes or so, which he spent chewing his lip at slip, hands thrust deep into his pockets, as Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett rattled off the first brisk fifty of what would go on to be a 231-run partnership. By the afternoon, Zimbabwe looked a sorry lot. They were so still and stiff in the field they might have been installed by Antony Gormley as a public art work. One tyre had already gone on their four-wheeled fast-bowling attack, the hefty left-armer Richard Ngarava, had to leave the field after he did himself a mischief while bending down to fetch the ball. And another, Tanaka Chivanga, was midway through one of the worst days anyone's ever had in the long history of Test cricket in England. By the time he had finished his third spell, he had bowled 12 overs, and taken none for 83. Which meant the lion's share of the work was left to the tireless Blessing Muzarabani, who knows a thing or two about what it takes in these conditions after doing the rounds of the county grounds during a two-year-spell in Northamptonshire's first and second XIs, and the off-spinner Sikandar Raza, who ended up wheeling through 24 overs even though he had only just flown in from Lahore, where he has spent the last six weeks playing for the Qalandars in the Pakistan Super League. In the circumstances, it was hard to judge exactly what England's runs were worth. There were four blokes bashing out Beatles covers around the back of Trent Bridge during the lunch break. Perched on top of an old shipping container that serves as an outdoor bar, they had mop tops, black polo necks, baggy caps, the full bit. As the day wore on it started to feel like 22 on the other side of the boundary rope were playing imitation Test cricket, too. No doubt there will be a lot of English chuntering about what it all means, and whether the mismatch between these teams is devaluing what is, we're always told, the pinnacle of the sport. Sign up to The Spin Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers' thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week's action after newsletter promotion The handful of Zimbabwe fans in the ground didn't seem too bothered by any of that. And round about tea they banded together in the Fox Road Stand, and started belting out songs in a futile attempt to inject a bit of energy into their exhausted team. There were perhaps 50 of them, all expats. They would have been singing all day, one explained, but it had taken them a few hours to find each other in the stands. He was annoyed Trent Bridge's ticketing system didn't give them the option of sitting together in the away end. He was baffled by the idea anyone might want to sit in a bit of peace and quiet. 'If England come to Zimbabwe we can beat them,' he said, 'and you know why? Because of all the support we have.' His name was Simba and he had come to the game with an old friend, Ben. They were born and raised in Harare, then moved to Derby. The worse things went for their team on the pitch, the louder they sang off it. 'Of course,' Simba told me, 'you can't be a Zimbabwean cricket fan if you're going to let the bad times get you down.' And they have known a lot worse than this. The player strikes, the political interference, the maladministration. It was six years ago that the ICC suspended their team from playing cricket altogether. So England's runs will have an asterisk attached. Given everything they've been through since the team was last here, maybe Zimbabwe's wickets ought to, too.
