Posted by Henry A on 22 May 2000
It was a fine win by England in the first test.The one thing they don't want to do is to slack off in the second.They should try to increase their intensity even more.

Posted by tim saunders on 22 May 2000
Am I the only one who thinks that Nick Knight should be dropped (pun not intended) for blatant cheating??????

Posted by andy baker on 22 May 2000
It was brave of Zimbabwe to bat first against Kent(the only side that day to win the toss and bat!)in the overcast conditions that were present nation wide. But getting experience of batting in overcast conditions seems to have backfired, as they did even worse at Lords. But Zimbabwe's bowling was only going for around 3 an over (normal Test rate) and when England tried to push the score along, they went from 376/4 to 415 all out. So Heath Sreak is not alone, and if the sun shines at Trent Bridge(a big ask in this country) then Zimbabe will play as well as they know they can. If it is overcast, then maybe it will be third time lucky!

Posted by Tim G on 22 May 2000
Well done England.I don't care who it is we have beaten, Maybe now we can beat a few more teams at Lords now we have ridden ourselves of the 'Lords Curse.

Posted by Ciaran on 22 May 2000
Perhaps England shouldn't count their chickens quite yet. Their new opener, Ramprakash, failed in his innings. Flintoff still looks a long way off Test standard. The tail contributed veru little to their run total and the new kid Schofeild didn't get a chance to prove himself. I agree that they total hammered Zimbabwe but how much did they learn about how these players might fair against the Aussies or the Pakistanis? We already know that Hick and Stewart can hammer crap bowling because they do it week in week out in the County championship.Will Schofeild be able to bowl to Waugh or Tendulkar without getting hammered? We don't know.Is Giddins really quick enough for Test Cricket. We don't know.Can Hick handle quality, aggressive pace bowling? Hopefully we will find out when the Windies turn up.

Posted by Heather Sadler on 22 May 2000
Neal Collins' sensationalist report: Lords without a prayer, was over the top. Lording it over the Zimbabweans with "cricketing slaughter" will hopefully have the same effect on the Zimbabweans as Lloyd's "murdered them" tirade. Zim's grit or match fixing? You will always have a winning and a losing side. Since the World Cup, the West Indies have played 11 tests, losing 8 of them. They have also played 19 ODI's, losing 14. Zimbabwe's figures of 9 Tests played, 7 lost and 11 ODI's played, 8 lost suddenly aren't so bad. Or maybe Collins thinks the Windies also don't deserve Test status? Or perhaps they too are caught up in the match fixing saga? Zimbabwe has won 6 out of 12 tests played against England. Don't bury us just yet Collins, or perhaps like Lloyd, you'll be eating your words!

Posted by phil walters on 23 May 2000
non performing zim cricketers should be sent home as other countries do ,how are we meant to compete.The last performence was pathetic!!!

Posted by Tim G on 23 May 2000
All the wrong people got runs against Zim.We know that Atherton ,Hick and Stewart can get runs against poor attacks.Hick has now cemented his place in the side to face the Windies ,good luck to him but I still think that by the Fourth Test we will be looking for a replacement for him.We should have played a youngster in these two tests against Zim,someone like Sales which would have been agentle introduction to test Cricket.

Posted by Cyrille Viossat on 23 May 2000
This cheating by Knight reminded me of Kallis' "superb catch" to get rid of Hick in the ODI tournament final in RSA. There a man who will never cheat and who may well have won the game for his adopted country was dismissed by a liar. He just walked so the third umpire was not to blame that time (whereas he was three times to blame in the test -two wrong decisions and inconsistency. If you get it wrong at least do it consistently), but for a dismissal it was just as unfair and Kallis knew it had bounced.

Posted by Tim G on 23 May 2000
I've often wondered why Graeme Hick never tried to make himself into a fast Bowler.He's a tall athletic bloke and throws the ball like a bullet.If he could have done that he would have taken the pressure off himself Batting wise and would have been a very useful allrounder.Instead of that he bowl's ineffectual offbreaks

Posted by Peter Rich on 24 May 2000
After alledgedly spending a fortune on transmission rights for test matches why is there no live coverage on ch4 for next week's test match?

Posted by Amit Majumdar on 27 May 2000
Zimbabwe's Bowling and Fielding are strong. Over the years it is their batting which has let them down. No doubt that their cricket is passing through a bad patch in th season 1999 - 2000. I wish that good players like Grant Flower, Murray Goodwin, Andy Flower, Neil Johnson, Alister Cambell, Heath Streak would settle down and play a long innings and not play impatient bad shots and throw their wickets away. Like they have a bowling coach in Carl Rackemann & Jeff Thomson, I wish they had a batting coach who can improve their batting technique like the experienced Allan Border. Also they require Mental Toughness which they lack like the South Africans & Australians and play like a team than depend on individual performances. Then they will be one of the top sides in the world.

Posted by Barney on 27 May 2000
Well finally a win. But, after all, there are only about 1 county staff's worth of decent cricketers in Zimbabwe, (25 or so). Instead of praising this victory as an astonishing feat, shouldn't we just take it as what it should be, an expected victory and realise that the previous results were due to Zimbabwe's good play on the day and England's general ineptitiude. There is still a long way to go to reach the standards of Oz. Not much has fundamentally changed other than bringing in a few younger faces who as yet haven't really done anything of any great consequence

Posted by Julian Patmore on 27 May 2000
Great coverage - brilliant to see England on winning form again. A point re the on screen graphics. The batsmans score that appears in the top right hand of the screen is partially obliterated, can this be resized so that all of it is visible. Cheers ps Keep up this very good standard

Posted by stephenkelly on 28 May 2000
good lucks guys on the rest of your tour

Posted by Adrian Jackson on 28 May 2000
It is about time England got some decisions going in favour of them, We have been beaten by some very poor decisions in the past, notably Michael Slaters Run out last ashes series, when he was clearly out of his ground. Fair play has gone out of the window now that most decisions now go to the third umpire and with all the scandal surrounding the game i love, it does not surprise me to see some of the decisions given. Lastly, I have a lot of respect for some of the Zimbabwe players for the fighting spirit they show during games and I am sure they will be ready for Trent Bridge.Lets not get carried away England, We have a Long, Long way to go yet before we can say that we are back with the likes of Australia and South Africa, but keep up the good work so far.

Posted by Emma Witcomb on 28 May 2000
Well done England on a brilliant and exciting first test, all the best for the next.

Posted by Kerrie Davies on 29 May 2000
Wishing the Zimbabwe players all the best for their second test against England. The way I see it is that it is pretty tough making England look good so don't take it too hard.