Great bowling performance essential in victory over Zimbabwe
Lietuva laimėjo Lobizmas ir užmušt pirmas
Zimbabvė: 164 (Chauluka 79nu, Vytautas 26/4)
Lietuva: 167/3 (Adomaitis 57nu, Oakley 28/1)
Lietuva laimėjo septyni užribiai
Lithuanian captain Mindaugas Vytautas led from the front, and his high quality left arm unorthodox spin bowling took four key wickets which was key to Lithuania's victory against an off-colour Zimbabwe.
After winning the toss and electing to bowl first on a pitch expected to help the seamers Lithuania's opening bowlers managed to take early wickets; Kairys taking three wickets in a strong first spell. Leonas Užugiris contributed with the wicket of Charamba but again seemed to struggle, being the most expensive bowler. The star of the show was the Lithuanian captain, who's mix of leg breaks and straight deliveries sliced through Zimbabwe's middle and lower order as he eventually ended up with stats of 4/26. The only person able to resist the Lithuanian attack was Honesty Chauluka, who looked like he was playing on a totally different wicket during his 98-ball 79 not out.
Lithuania looked solid in reply, with a score in the high 200s looking incredibly likely had they been able to bat out all fifty overs. Ignas Luksa again seemed to struggle against international quality bowling, taking 29 balls to score eleven runs. He was the only batsman that seemed to find the conditions difficult, with Jonaitis getting out after a spectacular catch was taken by Streak on the cover boundary while trying to score incredibly quickly. A run-a-ball 77 run partnership between Adomaitis and Naujokas took Lithuania most of the way towards their target, with Gudonis making a brief appearance towards the end once Naujokas hit the ball straight back at Charamba, who added to his significant score with a wicket. Zimbabwe's bowlers were unable to take control of the game in the way that the Lithuanian bowlers were: Mugisha, Oakley and Charamba all took a wicket each but none had the significant spells that Kairys or Vytautas managed.
Speaking to Viasat after the game, coach Žvirblys said: "The guys played very well: I'd like to see us do that every week. Tomas and Mindaugas , but we have seen in the past teams throw away games that they really should have won by going out assuming that they'd win. We batted very well: I think that we could have comfortably scored 280 if we got the full 50 overs. We go into the Kiribati game confident of a result that could get us into the final". He refused to rule out any potential changes, which is likely to increase press speculation over the returns of Grybas and Minkus, who've been left out of every game in Kiribati.
Grybas to return for Kiribati rematch
By Gražvydas Marmakevicius, ESPN Cricinfo Lithuanian Cricket Correspondent
The return of veteran batsman Robertas Grybas is one of several changes expected for Lithuania's "rematch" against Kiribati. Although Lithuania were victorious in their most recent match against Zimbabwe, sources are indicating that captain Mindaugas Vytautas and coach Simonas Žvirblys believe that improvement could be made before the must-win game against Kiribati.
Grybas was dropped following a run of bad form , but is expected to return in place of Ignas Luksa who failed to impress in the three matches since that game. The twenty-three year old Latvian-born player was selected after a good run of form in the Knockout Cup and One Day League, but he has struggled against the strong international bowling attacks. Grybas brings fifteen years of international experience to the relatively young side which is welcomed by most in the side; although some in the media do question . He also brings an alternative bowling option, although we understand that it is "unlikely" that his increasingly slow seamers will be required.
Another anticipated change is the addition of fast bowler Ramunas Minkus. Minkus has been a key part of Lithuania's bowling attack in recent years and was only dropped because it was believed his form of pure pace bowling was likely to be ineffective on the soft wickets common in Kiribati, a hypothesis that many see as incorrect. There is debate over who will have to be dropped from the side: Užugiris has struggled in the Pacific and some see him as a potential weak link in the bowling attack; however many expect that he will remain due to his perceived talent and that the left armer Glinskis will have to give way.
You can follow Lithuania's match against Kiribati at 1am live on Viasat Sport Baltic and LRT Radija, with highlights being shown at 11pm on LRT Televizija. You can also get ball-by-ball text commentary on espncricinfo.com, an official partner of Cricket Lithuania.
EXPECTED XI
Adomas Jonaitis
Robertas Grybas
Erikas Naujokas
Valdas Adomaitis
Arturas Gudonis
Ricardas Antinis
Titas Kampas
Tomas Kairys
Ramunas Minkus
Leonas Užugiris
Mindaugas Vytautas
This is a commentary piece, and the views contained within are to be seen as those of the author and not of Cricket Lithuania. This piece has been republished by Cricket Lithuania with the permission of ESPN Cricinfo and the author, and all rights to it are reserved to them.
