October 7, 2001	Sunday	Rajab 19, 1422

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

HARARE, Oct 6: Zimbabwe’s dismal sequence of losing One-day Internationals continued here Saturday against England as they lost their ninth match in a row.

They also go 2-0 down and face the real prospect of losing the entire five-match series in the third match Sunday.

After appearing in command of events early in the day, Zimbabwe collapsed from 152-3 to 195 all out. Were it not for a last wicket stand of 24, they would have provided no challenge at all to the tourists.

As it was, England made short work of reaching the target. Their 196 winning score cost them only two wickets and they achieved it in fewer than 38 overs.

Matthew Hoggard took 3-37 to continue his fine form and he was named man of the match. Both Flower brothers Grant and Andy failed for Zimbabwe, scoring only eight runs between them and this is perhaps Zimbabwe’s greatest concern.

Only Alistair Campbell with 49, Stuart Carlisle with 40 and 34 from Craig Wishart were the successes of a poor overall performance.

Heath Streak, making a return to the captaincy after recovering from back spasms, won the toss and decided to bat. It was Nasser Hussain’s 11th loss with the coin in a row.

England looked utterly comfortable as Marcus Trescothick and Nick Knight opened for what would clearly be an easy task.

Trescothick made a sparkling 46 runs and the only other wicket to fall was that of Knight, who helped himself to 82 in 103 balls.

Nasser Hussain helped himself to an undefeated 50, adding to the 73 he scored in the first international Wednesday.

At the end England had more than 12 overs to spare, representing a huge defeat for the home team.

Zimbabwe will have to produce a miraculous turn-round Sunday if they are to halt their losing sequence sliding into double figures and put the brakes on England’s rampant domination of the tour.

Later Hussain hailed Hoggard, suggesting Darren Gough and Andy Caddick’s places in the team could be under threat.

The pace bowler won the Man-of-the-Match award.

“His white ball bowling is very good,” Hussain said. “He swings it off a good length and he probably even bowls better in England with the white balls.

“Next summer in the triangular series (with India and Sri Lanka) he’ll come into it even more and he’s putting pressure on Gough and Caddick.

“It’ll be interesting to see whether we can have all three available.”

Neither Gough or Caddick, automatic choices to lead the England attack in recent seasons, are on tour in Zimbabwe.