We're going to try and drag the game out for as long as possible: Graeme Cremer

Zimbabwe skipper Graeme Cremer says that his side aims to stretch the Test for as long as possible. He also accepted the fact that New Zealand will keep them out for long and he is okay with it.

“They will keep us out there which we don’t mind. We don’t mind if they bat all day again,” Cremer said on Friday (July 29). “We’re going to try and drag the game out for as long as possible and take time out of the game.”

New Zealand, powered by Tom Latham’ s fourth Test century and Kane Williamson’s 91, ended the 2nd day of the first Test with a lead of 151 after the hosts were bowled out for a measly 164 in their first innings

Early on Day 2, Cremer lost left-arm spinner Sean Williams and wicket-keeper Regis Chakabva due to illness. While Williams was down with the flu, wicketkeeper Chakabva had tonsillitis. Williams’s absence meant that the hosts compensate with part-timer Hamilton Masakadza who had to send down nine overs.

Cremer also had a heavy workload yesterday and bowled 35 overs. He admitted he had to bowl a lot of overs irrespective of the situation considering his side had picked an extra batsman in place of a fast bowler.

“I knew coming into this game, we were one frontline seamer short so I knew I was going to do the bulk of the bowling anyway,” Cremer said. “I see myself as a bowler that will lead the attack so I knew there would be a bit of extra pressure on me. The other bowlers that we’ve got are a lot younger and lot more inexperienced. So I look to try and get wickets and get us into good positions.”

“I thought the guys fought hard, They didn’t run away with the game. We kept them in check. We knew it was going to be tough to get wickets because it’s a good batting surface so we wanted them to go at two or three runs an over and we wanted to take some wickets, which we did.”

Graeme Cremer also expressed his disappointment over his team’s poor batting performance.

“We are still upset we didn’t score enough runs but that’s the way it is,” he said. “Tomorrow morning it will still be for good batting but from later on in the afternoon, it will be dusty and start spinning and bouncing, so we have to start thinking about how we will play in the second innings.

“Because we haven’t played enough, we are sometimes not sure what to expect and not sure how to go about it but now the guys have seen what to expect. Nothing will change in the second innings. I’m sure New Zealand will still use the short ball and the seamers as much. Hopefully, guys will have the right mindset to bat long.”