Who was Zimbabwe's first one-day international captain? (12 March 2002)

Making their one-day debut in the 1983 World Cup was tough enough, but coming up against an Australian side packed with names like Graham Yallop, Allan Broder, Rod Marsh, Dennis Lilles and Jeff Thomson in their very first match must have truly seemed like a case of baptism by fire for the Zimbabwean team.

For Australia, things seemed to be proceeding according to plan when Lillee and Yallop demolished the top-order of Zimbabwe. But skipper Duncan Fletcher, coming in at number six, put up doughty resistance to remain unbeaten on 69 off 84 balls. Along with the lower middle-order, Fletcher helped Zimbabwe post a total of 239/6 in their allotted 60 overs - a spirited fightback, but was it one that could test stalwarts like Kepler Wessels, Kim Hughes, David Hookes and Border?

But Fletcher was not done yet. Bowling his medium-pacers, he took the first four wickets to fall, returning figures of 4-42 off 11 overs. His fellow trundlers, inspired, bowled with misery, and despite Wessels' knock of 76 and Marsh's unbeaten 50, Australia ended their innings on 226/7. Zimbabwe, thus, had notched up a historical win in their maiden one-dayer, and Fletcher deservedly bagged the Man of the Match award.

The modern one-day game strategy, built around the concept of bits-and-pieces players who contribute with bat and ball, is only now being used in England to good effect. But they have the right man at the job. Fletcher, now the coach of England, was one of the one-day genre's original all-rounders, and his first match proved that conclusively.