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Originally Posted by Tiger Manc
Well done Zim! Great achievement for the underdogs! If Zimbabwe can do it, so can we.
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not necessarily. in fact, most likely not.
cricket is the most "condition specific" team sport on earth. compare to basketball, football, hockey, baseball, soccer.
Also note all of ZIM's test wins. Pakistan, India, Bangladesh. Notice a trend. 10 out of 11 wins in ZIM. ZIM can beat subcontinent sides at home. In fact, they would most likely struggle to beat subcontinent sides on the flatter Bulawayo tracks. They've won almost exclusively at Harare. Notice how Harare has been getting 2 tests back to back. Its a money saving as well as face saving ploy. And you can't blame them. What does BCB do? Let teams come and practice on the match wicket. ZIM takes advantage of their home conditions we give other teams the advantage. We'll lay out a highway in Mirpur so India can bat us out of the game and then lay a minefield for Ireland or Afghanistan or Zimbabwe so they can keep things close and almost beat us.
Also look at ZIM's batting and bowling averages home vs away since readmission in 2011. Albeit small sample size, but its more revealing than a bikini. They have a bigger home-away ratio than India does. Our team by comparison probably has a no difference or may actually perform better abroad than at home.
But one thing...I'll cut our boys a tincy wincy bit of slack for not wining the series against ZIM. At least they bounced back from utter annhilation to deliver a pretty decent 140 run defeat the very next test.
Thats way more than the Paksters can claim.