Cremer stuns the Kenyans while Canada agree to tour Zim

Posted by brmtaylor.com admin on February 05, 2009

Graeme Cremer once again was the key in restricting Kenya to a low total, snaring his new best bowling performance in an ODI, 4/31 - the 3rd time in the series he has set new best bowling figures. Cremer was Zimbabwe's star performer in the series capturing hauls of 2/28, 2/40, 4/39, 3/34 and 4/31. Preliminary voting for the zimcricketforums.com Player of the Series poll shows Cremer taking an early lead in the polls. His 15 wickets in his debut series came at an economy of 3.75 and an unbelievable average of just 11.46.

Cremer's career one-day stats have also dropped considerably. Starting the series with the impressive one-day bowling average of just over 22 (with 36 wickets in 24 matches), at the conclusion of the 5th ODI his bowling average had dropped below 20 to 19.74, while his economy rate is now 4.05. His ODI debut came 4 years and 221 days after his Test match debut.

Zimbabwe whitewashed Kenya 5-0, and it was a true team effort with everyone getting a piece of the action. Hamilton Masakadza and Elton Chigumbura were the leading run scorers with 260 and 226 runs respectively, while it was Cremer and Ray Price that spearheaded the bowling with 15 and 8 wickets respectively.

As the 5th ODI was concluding news of a proposed ODI series began circulating. Apparently the Canadian national team will tour Zimbabwe for 4 ODI's to take place in late March. The matches, to be played in Harare, will serve as preparation for the the World Cup Qualifiers for Canada. News of potential squads and match fixtures are yet to be confirmed, although it is believed that a full strength national team will play Canada with the Zimbabwe A squad in all but name expected to travel to India for the Deodhar Trophy.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe's return to Tests looks set to be delayed for at least another 6 months with the ICC declaring in their Perth meeting that nobody feels Zimbabwe is ready to return to the longer format at this time. Estimates were placed between 6 and 24 months, during which time Zimbabwe have a lot of competitive cricket lined up.