Zimbabwe vs South Africa - First ODI: Batsmen to watch out for
Zimbabwe, after a clean-sweep against South Africa in the T20 series, will now want to redeem their performance as they again take on the hosts in their first ODI at Bloemfontein on 15th
October 2010.
Many expect their batsmen to come up with a couple of lusty performances. So, let’s take into account the current batting resources of the visitors:
Brendon http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Taylor-c92915:
Brendon Taylor is currently the best batsman in the Zimbabwe team. He has the ability to attack the opponent’s bowlers, and can also play some solid innings. Previously, he was bound to bat in the middle order as he was in-experienced and his talent wasn’t
found out but then to everyone’s surprise, Taylor, with his aggressive batting intent played some scintillating and crucial innings. Now, due to his emerging ability to play under pressure and torment the opposition’s bowling line-up, he has earned the opening
position in his team.
As a right handed batsman, he is strong in front of the wickets. His extravagant cover drive is a treat to watch and can be termed as his signature shot but his poor foot work has many a times brought him demise. However, in the recent past he has worked
hard on it and also played spin particularly well.
One of his most notable performances came against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 at the ICC World T20 Cup when he produced the match winning 60 runs while chasing a fighting total of 139 runs, thus stunning the Aussies to a 5 wicket defeat.
Brendon has the best batting average in OneDay Internationals, considering the current Zimbabwean squad. Overall, he has played 105 matches, amassing 2990 runs at an impressive average of 32 with a best of 119. His tally of runs also includes 2 centuries.
At the T20 series against South Africa, Taylor showed his full potential with the bat. Although, he scored a five ball duck in the first match but in the 2nd match, he bludgeoned the opposition’s bowling to all parts of the corner, scoring a magnificent
59 runs in 39 balls which included four boundaries and 3 sixes.
Still, in the end, his innings wasn’t enough to sail his team to victory but they went close, scoring 186 runs in pursuit of 194 runs target. Taylor still possesses a great threat to South Africa’s opening bowlers.
Hamilton Masakadza:
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Zimbabwe-c3045’s batting line-up. As an opener, he is well capable of providing his team some quick starts with his blazing bat. Masakadza, along with his partner Taylor, can cause a real havoc for the
opposition at the top of the order with their similar sort of batting styles.
Masakadza is a strong front-foot player who loves to drive the ball on the up. This aggressive right hander likes to play straight as the on-drive is his trademark shot. His scintillating stroke play has earned him some excellent numbers in the shorter version
of the game.
He has so far played 98 ODIs while gathered 2609 runs at an average of 28 with a best of 178. In his hunt for runs, the opening batsman has scored 3 centuries.
At the recent T20 series against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757, like his other opening fellow, Hamilton also proved his skills against a quality South African bowling line-up. The Zimbabwean struck well made 72 runs of 62 balls in the first match as he helped his team to
pile up a respectable total of 168 runs, which was hunted by their opponents quite easily in 16 overs.
Moreover, the South Africans had imposed a mammoth total of 195 runs to chase in the 2nd game. So, Masakadza had to go at full speed to give his team a sniff of climbing down a mountain score, but he only managed 10 runs.
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