Bulawayo, close of second day:
Two fine attacking innings, by Trevor Madondo of the President's
XI and Steve Waugh of Australia, were the highlights of the
second day's play between the two teams, which finished with the
tourists 274 runs ahead with eight second-innings wickets
standing.
Trevor Gripper and Mark Vermeulen continued this morning from
their overnight score of 25 for one, against the bowling of the
immaculate Glenn McGrath and the somewhat more erratic Matthew
Nicholson. Vermeulen took his score to 15 before, playing
forward to McGrath, bowling accurately but within himself, he got
a thin outside edge to present wicket-keeper Ian Healy with a
regulation catch. The score was now 36 for two.
Trevor Madondo came in with more aggressive intent than his
predecessors, but looked capable and a more mature player than
when he made his Test debut eighteen months ago. Gripper looked
as solid as ever, taking most of McGrath before shattering the
latter's hitherto economical figures by turning him for three
through midwicket. Nicholson, in need of bowling practice,
bowled four wides down the leg side to Gripper; after a bye,
Madondo cracked him away handsomely off the back foot backward of
point for four.
After this Steve Waugh brought on Shane Warne for his first bowl
of the tour. He caused the batsmen little trouble and tended to
stray down leg side. Madondo was severe on Fleming when he came
on playing two more of his cracking back-foot square drives to
the point boundary in his first over, and then swinging him for a
glorious high six over long-on. Gripper, settling in, began
working the ball around more readily for ones and twos.
Madondo continued to score mainly in boundaries, his trademark
being that back-foot stroke backward of point. Certain
disciplinary problems last season did him no favours at all, and
probably the authorities will want to be sure he has matured as a
person before promoting him to the Test team again. Soon after
reaching his fifty, with another such boundary, he misjudged a
ball from Fleming which did not get up as much as he expected and
hit him on the helmet; play was stopped for a few minutes while
he recovered, but he responded by cracking the next ball through
extra cover for four.
It was not a perfect innings: he was beaten a few times and
dropped on 55 low down at mid-on when he mistimed a pull. He did
not profit from the error, though, skying another pull off
McGrath for the wicket-keeper to take, running towards square
leg. He made 59 off 102 balls, with 12 fours and a six, and the
President's XI were 126 for three.
Stuart Carlisle, his international place in the balance, came in
and immediately looked positive and purposeful. He played
himself in, and then on-drove McGrath smoothly for four. Then
came the lunch interval, with the score on 140 for three, Gripper
still there with his dogged 32 and Carlisle on 9.
Nicholson came on for a wild and woolly over after lunch which
included a wide outside off stump and a beamer which also went
through to the boundary to be called four wides. His next over
gave umpire Chuck Coventry even more exercise, with three
separate wides and two more deliveries that he was unlucky to get
away with. For the President's XI it was just as well the extras
were mounting, as neither batsmen seemed able to get the ball off
the square after lunch, and Carlisle failed to add to his 9 in
half an hour before, swishing in frustration at a ball down the
leg side from Fleming and glancing it into the gloves of the
keeper. The score was now 151 for four.
The new batsman Greg Lamb fell at the same score, moving across
his stumps but able to get a bat on Fleming, who won an lbw
decision. He was noticeably more fired up after dismissing
Carlisle. The last five wickets now needed another 35 runs to
avoid the follow-on. Gripper, seemingly unperturbed by the loss
of one partner after another, was rock-solid at the other end on
34. After hitting only one boundary before lunch, he took charge
of Fleming and drove him past mid-off and then mid-on for two
fours off successive balls.
Wicket-keeper Bruce Moore-Gordon did not last long, caught at
third slip by Ponting off a ball from Fleming that bounced more
than he expected for only a single, reducing the score to 161 for
six. Eddo Brandes poked and prodded unconvincingly for a while
before finally deciding to chance his arm against Fleming, and
drove him for four through extra cover. Nicholson returned from
the other end, and immediately conceded a boundary off Gripper's
pads.
Gripper finally reached a marathon fifty by turning Mark Waugh's
first ball of the tour for a single towards long leg; it took him
286 minutes and 197 balls. The follow-on was duly avoided in
partnership with an unusually restrained Brandes, in his role of
captain. With 200 passed, Brandes began to open up, lofting Mark
Waugh over long-on for six. Australia finally found the only way
to dismiss Gripper - by running him out. He played a ball into
the covers and called for a run, but was sent back too late by
Brandes and left stranded three-quarters of the way down the
pitch as Fleming returned the ball to Healy. Gripper's
painstaking 59 showed that he has the application, temperament
and technique to play Test cricket, but needs to add to his
repertoire of strokes. He faced 211 balls in 299 minutes. The
President's XI were now 211 for seven.
Brandes soon followed; Warne had an lbw appeal rejected and
exchanged some words with umpire Coventry, but next ball Brandes
went on the big hit and skyed a catch off the outside edge to
Fleming in the covers. He made 30, and the score was 214 for
eight. John Rennie stayed a long time without scoring, and was
finally given out lbw, shuffling half forward, to McGrath, making
the score 216 for nine.
Pommie Mbangwa, to the glee of his home crowd, turned a faster
ball from Warne behind square leg for two to get off the mark.
He was to remain unbeaten, losing Ray Price, adjudged lbw to a
yorker from McGrath for 2 and bringing the innings to a close for
219, a deficit of 116. This was McGrath's fifth wicket of the
innings; he did not attempt full pace but concentrated on line
and length, conceding just 36 runs in 18.3 overs. Tea was taken
between innings.
John Rennie struck quickly when the Australians batted again;
after a single by Greg Blewett, he brought back the ball to
strike Michael Slater, first ball, on the pad and win an lbw
decision from umpire Ahmed Esat. Blewett did not add to his
score, he completely miscued an attempted pull off a short ball
from Brandes and skyed a catch to Doug Marillier at mid-off. The
Australians, probably through trying to score too fast too soon,
were two wickets down for just one run.
This brought the two Waugh brothers together, Steve having gone
in at three, probably to get some extra batting practice since
Langer, after his first-innings century, needed it less. The
pair applied themselves to dig their side out of a position of
some embarrassment. Brandes bowled steadily but no longer seems
to have the zip, at the age of 36; probably his international
career is over barring a real spate of injuries to others. Mark
Waugh gradually began to find his touch and played some elegant
drives through the covers off Brandes; he hit four boundaries off
Brandes' fifth over. From then on the policy was sensible
aggression, and the fifty came up in the 13th over.
Mbangwa came on and successfully slowed down the scoring rate for
three overs, at least. When Price came on to bowl, Steve decided
to open up again and hit him for six and a four over midwicket
off successive balls, then another four through the covers, the
bowler pitching too short. He on-drove Mbangwa for another
boundary, then two late cuts to the vacant third-man region off
Price brought up his fifty. The flurry of strokes continued, and
some misfielding helped to boost the score. Steve was now making
all the running, while Mark by comparison crawled through the
forties.
A golden opportunity went down when Steve, sweeping at Price, was
put down by Brandes diving at square leg. Mark finally reached
his fifty with a placid single. Steve was then in the seventies;
at one stage he had looked set to score a century after tea, but
he seemed to take a breather at this stage. Then, with time
running out, he seemed to set his sights on the rare feat again.
On 91 he cut Rennie for four, then hit him through the covers for
three, helped by a misfield. A single came off Gripper, but Mark
was unable to score off the rest of the over. The Australians
overnight then were 158 for two, with Mark Waugh on 58 and Steve
on 99, off 102 balls.