Williams lauds young Zim’s big feat
SEAN Williams has led Zimbabwe in three Tests so far and averages 80.50 as captain Abu Dhabi Cricket
Zimbabwe’s national cricket team captain Sean Williams hailed his side’s ten-wicket win over Afghanistan in the first Test in Abu Dhabi as a coming-of-age performance from a young group of players, and particularly important for his fledgling captaincy. ree Tests into his captaincy, Williams has lost once, and averages 80.50 with two hundreds and a fifty, and is enjoying the additional responsibility. “To win a Test match in two days with a young side is an extremely big feat for us as a team,” Williams said. “And for me it’s huge. As I have got older and taken on more responsibility as captain and a senior player, I started to understand more about my own game and leadership skills, and how important my performance is through tough times. As a leader, you can’t show weakness, You need to be strong. at’s a big thing for me. I’ve had it tough, I’ve had it rough and I’ve just kept on pushing. I feel like I didn’t come this far, to just go this far.” Williams was handed over the captaincy early last year, and his first assignment was a home series against Sri Lanka. After Zimbabwe were beaten by ten wickets in the first Test in Harare, he scored 107 and 53* in the second fixture that helped them post 406 in the second Test and set Sri Lanka 361 to win though eventually the match was drawn. In Abu Dhabi, Williams’ 105 rescued Zimbabwe from 38 for 4, helping post a match-winning 250 in their first innings on a tricky pitch.
He described it as a “carpet on one side and a dustbowl on the other”, and acknowledged it was a good toss to lose because he would have batted first as well, like Asghar Afghan did. ere was plenty in the surface and through the air for Zimbabwe’s seamers, as Blessing Muzarabani and Victor Nyauchi made a successful new-ball pair that Williams hopes will continue to operate together in future. "When you have Blessing on one end and Victor on the other end, it's not going to be easy,” he said.
He singled out Nyauchi, who had made his debut in Williams’ first Test as captain after finishing second in Zimbabwe’s firstclass competition in two out of the last three seasons, as being particularly deserving of the opportunity for a long run at the international stage. “He is something special for us,” Williams said. “He came from a difficult place in that he performed for three or four seasons without getting a look into the national side. He is a work horse. He has got good skill and his skills are developing.” Nyauchi finished the Test with six wickets — and Zimbabwe’s seamers with 16 between them — justifying the team selection to go without a specialist spinner. Afghanistan went the other way, with only one frontline pace bowler and three spinners. And though turn was evident from the first day, apart from Amir Hamza, they did not have a significant enough say in the Test. — cricinfo.