Dirk Viljoen on Zimbabwe's visit to Sharjah

All-rounder Dirk Viljoen, whose previous highest score in 29 one-day internationals was 36, was one Zimbabwean player who made great strides forward at the triangular tournament in Sharjah, scoring two sixties against India, both in difficult circumstances. He talks to John Ward about that tour.

JW: Dirk, first of all can you set the scene by describing what it is like in Sharjah?

DV: It's my second visit there; I made my debut there in 1997. It's a fantastic place, with lots of money and everything is done perfectly. The lights were fantastic and the outfield is brilliant; there is a really good wicket. The climate is not too good: very hot - we were playing in 36 degrees with 95 per cent humidity. There are huge crowds, all supporting the subcontinent, and nobody much shouting for Zimbabwe.

The people consist mainly of the Asian community rather than the locals who live in the Arab Emirates; the Arabs I think only make up 20 per cent of the population. They have a lot of cricket knowledge and most of the games had full crowds of between 15 and 20 thousand. They know what's going on and give the players a lot of attention.

The pitches played very well; I didn't see much change batting or bowling first pitchwise, but the dew was unbelievable, and it was really difficult to bowl second on there. I don't know if it's the time of year in Dubai but the dew was too difficult to play with. In one game I think we changed the ball five or six times; it was really difficult to grip and it just changed into a bar of soap.

JW: First of all the opening one-day international against Sri Lanka [Zimbabwe 225/4 (Andy Flower 120 not out, Dirk Viljoen 63 not out) lost to Sri Lanka 229/3 (Sanath Jayasuriya 78, Marvin Atapattu 90) by seven wickets.] I notice Grant Flower wasn't playing.

DV: Grant had done something to a muscle in his leg, so he sat out the first match, and Alistair [Campbell] was serving his sentence for his conviction in Nairobi. So we went in a bit thin, which meant that Mark Vermeulen made his debut, opening with Doug Marillier who was playing his third game. Stuey [Carlisle] was batting three, where he had been for a while, with myself at number six and Heath [Streak] at seven, which meant we were a batter short.

We didn't start off very well; very slowly, and were 13 for two, with Stuey getting nought and Douglas not getting much himself. Andy [Flower] played fantastically well for 120, while Guy [Whittall] stuck around for a couple of balls and then chipped one back to Muralitharan. I didn't have much faith in myself coming in at number six, but in the past I think I hadn't given myself a chance. As I came in I said to myself, "Give yourself a chance and see how it goes," and having Andy there with his experience was fantastic. I was very slow; I think my first 30 runs came off about 60 balls, and we were drawing towards the end of the innings when Russel Arnold was bowling and I managed to hit him for two sixes, which helped my scoring rate a bit. Then I hit Vaas for a six and a couple of fours, and suddenly I was 63 off 72 balls. It was great; nice to contribute with the bat for a change and not just be in the team as a bowler.

225 wasn't going to be enough on that wicket and the Sri Lankans got it pretty easily. Our attack wasn't going to bowl them out. We scored maybe 20 or 30 runs too few. We managed to push them to the 47th over to get that score, but we were just too short.

JW: How did the Sri Lankans try to handle you when you came in to bat?

DV: They set quite an attacking field; it was quite difficult for them, I think, because I hadn't really batted for long periods in one-day cricket, so they probably thought, "Just give him a couple of balls and he'll get himself out." They did set an attacking field, with a slip in to Murali, and with the seamers they had all the field in. It meant I had to hit over the top, which I did do, and then they put the field back and that made it a lot easier just trying to pinch the ones and twos. Most of the time I faced the spinners and only at the end I faced the seamers, but like I said a very attacking field to myself but more defensive to Andy, to try and get him off strike and bowl as many dot balls to me as they could.

JW: Was there any aggro towards you on the field when you got settled in?

DV: No, not at all. Well, a little bit from the bowlers, like when I hit Vaas for six; there was a bit of aggro there, but that's expected; it all happens. But apart from that, no, not really. They just got on with their game and we tried to pull it back.

JW: The second match [India 265/8 (Rahul Dravid 85; Travis Friend 4/55) beat Zimbabwe 252/6 (Stuart Carlisle 60, Andy Flower 63; Zaheer Khan 3/37) by 13 runs]. I notice this was your first international match against India. How did you find them?

DV: I think the Indians have a fantastic side. They've got some brilliant strokemakers there and I think we did extremely well against them. I'm a bit disappointed we lost the game; we should have got a little bit closer. But they've got so much depth, though maybe a little thin on their batting; if you get through the top four or five you've always got a chance. But 265 was too much; I think they got 32 in the last three overs, and it was probably 20 or 30 too many after we'd pegged them back. But we ended up losing the game by 13 runs, and we were only six wickets down. We should have been eight or nine wickets down and won the game with three or four balls to spare.

I think we had a chance when Tendulkar was bowling; he didn't bowl that well and we should maybe have taken him on more. Saying that, he went for 46 in six overs! I had only played against India before in a first-class warm-up game here, and bowling to their batsmen is really difficult. They come really hard at the spinners and I found that it was really hard bowling to them.

The lads were very disappointed that we lost the game. If we had been nine down and lost it would have been fair enough, but being six down and losing by 13 runs wasn't good. That's criminal in cricket; you should take more chances.

JW: The second match against Sri Lanka [Sri Lanka 276/9 (Sanath Jayasuriya 87, Marvin Atapattu 5) beat Zimbabwe 153 (Dirk Viljoen 60; Nuwan Zoysa 3/16) by 123 runs].

DV: Once again we bowled really well - they started off with about 100 of the first 15 overs. Jayasuriya just timed every single ball perfectly; I don't think he mistimed a single ball. 87 off 66 balls was brilliant. We managed to pull back and knock off their middle order, and once again at the death we probably bowled too many length balls and they found the boundary boards a few times. But having said that, 276 was not too big a target on that wicket, and we showed against India that we could reach it.

The lads were very confident going in after dinner to chase that, but once again early wickets cost us the game - 46 for six, and we weren't really going to recover from that. It was nice to get a few runs again, but not ideal to be scoring runs when the team is getting beaten; it's much nicer to contribute with bat or ball when the team is actually doing well. I hit 60 off 86 balls and Streaky got 25; we could have taken more risks but I think in the context of the game, 46 for six, it was a case of trying to rebuild it and trying to save a bit of face knowing there wasn't much we could do. Big shots could have cost us our wickets, especially with bowlers like Muralitharan who is a fantastic bowler; he bowled his ten overs for 19.

Maybe a little bit of application by our batters cost us that game. Zoysa and Vaas bowled really well, though, taking early wickets and knocking off our top order, and this won them the game. When I got in the spinners were on again, and by the time the seamers came on again I had 30 or 40 runs, so my eye was in, the ball was a little bit softer and not as hard as when the guys at the top faced it. So it was probably a little bit easier for me. But even when they came back at the end there they bowled really well and to get them away was really difficult. I think where they got their wickets was that both Vaas and Zoysa got the ball to bounce and they had a few guys caught behind, I think more surprised by the bounce than anything else.

JW: And the final game against India [Zimbabwe 218/9 (Alistair Campbell 15 not out; Zaheer Khan 4/42) lost to India 219/7 (Saurav Ganguly 66, Vinod Kambli 60; Travis Friend 3/39) by three wickets.

DV: We tried to change our tactics this time. We thought chasing a target wasn't working for us, so we decided instead to bat first. [JW: And bowl with a bar of soap!] Just as a bit of variation; maybe the guys felt that we weren't going to win a game chasing, and we would try something different.

Alistair batted fantastically well, but there wasn't much support from anybody else: tens and twenties, that weren't really going to give us a big enough score. 218 probably wasn't good enough against their batting line-up, but the boys stood by it and Travis Friend bowled extremely well and knocked over a couple of their top order. We were in the game when they were 158 for six and they needed 60 or 70 runs to win at five runs an over. We managed to get it up to six, but again there was a little bit of indiscipline in our bowling I think, maybe not enough arm balls - but we came close, and once again little things like perhaps another big partnership when we were batting, if one more guy had got fifty to help Alistair it might have changed the game.

Grant bowled really well; I would have bowled him for more overs, but he only bowled three, and he was the one who pulled it back so well. Saying that, we went for the seam option and Travis Friend ended up with three for 39 off his ten. But I think the slower bowlers were pulling it back and we took them off, which probably wasn't a great move. But you're always going to struggle defending 218 on a good batting wicket. Something's going to have to happen if you're going to win that game. It nearly did; we nearly turned it on its head, but a bit like I said, you need to be scoring in the region of 250 to be winning games here.

It's just these little things we need to work on to change those losses into wins, and I think that's what helped us when we were in England, and when we played here against New Zealand and won the series. It wasn't just one or two guys performing, it was more of a team effort. I know Alistair got all those runs here against New Zealand, but it was a team effort, people batted with him. 270 was not a big score for us to chase then, and being set a target of 270 wasn't too big a score for us to make. I just hope the guys in India do build big partnerships and that we can get big scores on the board, put pressure on the Indians. I think that's how we will beat them, when they know that they're chasing a big score and their batting line-up's a bit thin; if you get past numbers five and six you're in. That will put pressure on their batters.

JW: I noticed Sachin Tendulkar failed in both of those matches [8 and 4] - was that the result of any particular plan?

DV: Not really. From my point of view, I didn't really think he was in the greatest form in this tournament. I just hope he doesn't save it for India when we get there! Heat nicked him off in the first game and Travis nicked him off in the second, and watching him play against Sri Lanka he didn't look as fluent as he normally does. But he's a fantastic player and he'll sort him technique out, and don't worry, by the time the boys get to India he'll be scoring runs!

JW: Obviously you yourself made great progress with the bat on the tour. Who else from our team do you think came along particularly well?

DV: I think Bryan Strang had a really good tour. I think a lot of the selectors believe he's a bit too slow to bowl in the subcontinent, but if you look at his bowling stats he had a great tour [40 overs, conceding 157 runs]. He bowled really well and most of that was bowling with the new ball - Jayasuriya and Kaluwitharana, Ganguly and Tendulkar batting against him, four top players.

JW: Quite a compliment for a player who, looking through the statistics yesterday, I saw didn't take a wicket or score a run either on the whole tour!

DV: That's right, he didn't, but his bowling stats show just how invaluable he was to the team up in front. He bowled really, really well. Travis Friend is a great find for the team and he bowled really quickly and took nine wickets in the series. He bowled extremely well. Andy and Alistair played well; both got hundreds, but probably lacking a few more guys who performed, and I think that's mainly why we lost the series. If we had one or two more guys who were performing in the games we might have done a little better. Individual performances weren't really going to do it for us.

JW: Paul Strang didn't seem to have a good tour.

DV: No, I don't know how bad his old arm injury is. From what I understand it's still bad and he struggled with the dew. Obviously [as a wrist-spinner] he's different from Grant and me; he holds the ball with more fingers so the dew really hassles him, but I suppose it's something he's going to have to learn to cope with and try to control.

JW: Any interesting incidents on or off the field?

DV: No, not really; just another tour to Sharjah, I suppose. But the lads were very disappointed that we didn't come back with a win, and we want to take that to India, having come close to India twice there. It would have been good to beat them and then go to India with an upper hand.