When Tamim Iqbal described Zimbabwe’s Brian Vitori as an ‘ordinary’ bowler, it certainly raised more than a few eyebrows particularly since the Tigers found the debutant seamer noticeably hard to cope with during the first innings of the Test match between the sides.
Zimbabwe captain Brendan Taylor in reply to Tamim’s comment said that the Bangladesh opener needed to look at his own performance before remarking on others.
Taylor further added that such comments only served to spur his side on to the 130-run victory on the team’s comeback to Test cricket.
Vitori to his credit seemed unperturbed by Tamim’s observation and emphatically put the matter to rest in the first one-day international of the five-match one-day series at Harare on Friday.
The stocky left-arm seamer ripped through the Bangladeshi batting line-up with an impressive 5-30, proving that actions do indeed speak louder than words. Vitori announced his arrival in one-day international cricket with a fiery opening spell that produced four wickets for 21 runs in eight overs to help the home team reduce Bangladesh to 184 runs.
During his opening spell, the man from the province of Masvingo also won his eagerly-anticipated duel with Tamim, tempting the Tigers’ vice captain with a short ball. Tamim’s mistimed pull shot was safely gathered at mid-on by Elton Chigumbura.
Vitori went on to dismiss Shahriar Nafees before striking further hammer-blows in the 14th over removing both Mohammad Ashraful and Imrul Kayes. The seamer capped off a memorable debut with his fifth wicket of the innings when he took the wicket of Shafiul Islam in his second spell.
On the evidence of the performances in his first two international matches, Vitori is set for a bright future in international cricket and has also impressed former South African pace spearhead Allan Donald.
‘I saw Brian when we played the Southern Rocks, he was playing for their second team and I saw him warming up one morning by himself and wondered why he wasn’t in the first side. He had such good discipline.’ Donald told Cricinfo.
‘Vitori appears to be the most competent left-arm bowler to play for Zimbabwe since Bryan Strang, who last played a decade ago, and his unique angle brought immediate results,’ he added.
-With New Age input
