After Zimbabwe's disappointing loss to Sri Lanka in the tri-series opener on Monday (November 14), head coach Heath Streak lamented the team's body language in the second half of the game when the hosts had to defend a low total. Addressing media persons in the post-match press conference, Streak opined: "Your positivity and your mental outlook is affected by your body language and how you're thinking." Streak said.
"Yes, you may not feel you've got enough runs on the board but it doesn't stop you going out there and being positive and aggressive and supporting your team-mates. Diving around and getting energy going. You don't need talent to do that. Those are things that anyone can do," he further added.
The former all-rounder and captain of Zimbabwe also pointed fingers on his batsmen's failure to apply themselves and credited the lower order for displaying some grit. "The toss has always been in the game of cricket and that's not something you can guarantee. If you can only win cricket matches when you win the toss then there's a serious issue to address.
"For me, today there was an advantage to the toss that would have made it 60-40 in favour of whoever wins the toss, but there are still no excuses for a batting performance like that. PJ Moor and some of the lower order guys like Cremer and Tiripano showed that when you applied yourself there were runs to be scored."
Streak made a strict assessment of the opening fixture and reckoned there was just one positive for his players to take home. "I said to the guys the only positive for me is that we've got three more games. There weren't really many other positives. The reality is that we have to bat, bowl and field better than we did today otherwise we're not going to feature in this series. It's certainly within their own hands.
"There's also lots of work for me and the coaching staff to do, but we talk about people taking responsibility and when you say that generally you're looking at your senior players to do that. They're going to have to start putting their hands up," Streak concluded.
Zimbabwe, after being asked to bat first under laden skies, lost half their side inside 16 overs and eventually failed to post a challenging total. Most of their batsmen were confounded by poor shot selection.
Even the opposition batsman, and the recipient of the Man of the Match award - Dhananjaya de Silva - admitted that Zimbabwean batsmen could have done better. "Some guys just threw their wickets away. They could have achieved 200 or 220 and that would have given them a good chance to come back into the game," he said.
(Cricbuzz)
