Committed to PEOPLE'S RIGHT TO KNOW
Vol. 5 Num 895 Sun. December 03, 2006  
   
Sports


Utseya confident of bouncing back


Shahriar Nafees's amazing batting form appears to be an additional headache to the Zimbabwe team following their admitted weakness against the left-arm spin attack as visiting skipper Prosper Utseya yesterday said that they had been working on the left-handed opener's limitations.

"We couldn't find any answers to his batting in the last few matches. But we should stop him if we want to win the match. We have worked on his batting in the last two days to find out his weakness," said the promising off-spinner.

Their weakness against the Bangladeshi left-arm spinners was also evident in the last match where Abdur Razzak led from the front with four wickets besides Mohammad Rafique and Sakib Al Hasan's two each but Nafees's batting also seemed to be a permanent problem for them as the young opener smashed three unbeaten hundreds in a row.

Despite the heavy defeat in the first match, the young Zimbabwean skipper was hopeful about his team's chances of bouncing back in the series.

"We are now just one down and there are four matches to go. I played bad cricket in the last match but I am hopeful that we can bounce back from the last match's outcome," he said.

He was also excited with the arrival of two new players -- Graeme Cremer and Ed Rainsford.

"Two guys are coming from Zimbabwe to join the team and definitely their inclusion should strengthen the squad," said Utseya.