Bad umpiring, poor middle order condemn Zimbabwe to loss in first test

Zimbabwe fought valiantly but still fell short of snatching a draw against Sri Lanka at Harare Sports Club.

While the middle order failed to pitch up, Zimbabwe will feel hard done by the 3 major lbw decisions the empires got wrong against chevrons.

First was Tino Mawoyo who looked set on 37 only to be given out leg before even though the ball would have fifth stump at best.

Then a decision against Peter Moor was flying over off stump.

And then Donald Tripano who was given out in spite of a meaty inside edge.

Without a Decision Review System (DRS) in place it will mean that things of this sort will take place but with 17 wrong decisions in 3 test matches (15 of them against Zimbabwe) it does feel strange.

Of the decisions man of the match and Zimbabwe captain, Graem Cremer said:

It’s nothing we can do about it

Cremer fought for hours but went going forward after a strong stand with debutant Carl Mumba:

I blame myself for losing this game. If I was there and Chris (Mpofu) or Carl (Mumba) gone out I would have understood but I blame myself entitrely for losing this game.

On what failing top order Cremer said they needed to fire adding that all were in top form but were probably affected by the bigger occasion.

At the end of the day a 225 run loss will look bad but having come 8.1 overs close to claiming a draw Zimbabwe will be happy with the fight shown in the country’s 100th test.

The second Test kicks off on 6 November at the same venue.