Gavin Rennie on the Logan Cup and his future

The most notable individual performance of the Logan Cup match between the CFX Academy and Mashonaland was a career-best innings of 152 by Gavin Rennie of Mashonaland, who was controversially omitted from the national side to tour the West Indies. Here he talks to John Ward after the match.

JW: It must have been a major disappointment to you to be left out of the West Indies tour.

GR: Yes, it definitely was a disappointment. I didn't get enough league runs to warrant a place in the side, but still it doesn't take away the disappointment of not making the touring squad.

JW: Have any of the selectors or administrators spoken to you about it?

GR: No, they haven't actually spoken to me about why I was left out or anything like that. But hopefully in the next couple of weeks I'll have a chance to speak to them and see their point of view, so I can work on my game in the light of what they are requiring.

JW: Have you had any particular problems that you're aware of that have perhaps contributed to your having a lean run in the league recently?

GR: Perhaps being left out of the triangular-nations tour to South Africa may have caused a bit of anxiety in my game. Whenever I went out to the wicket perhaps I was a little over-anxious to score runs, and maybe this anxiety caused a lack of patience in my batting.

JW: I see you have been bowling more recently.

GR: Yes, I've been bowling well for Alex, my club side, and I've got very good figures there: ten overs, two for 18, three for 27 . . . I've been bowling my full quota of overs and bowling well. I'm not turning the ball as much as I want to, but it's still early days of my bowling comeback, so I'm still working on that aspect.

JW: Your back not giving you any trouble now, then?

GR: No, my back's fine. I've been doing some rehab on my back to strengthen the muscles, and it's fine.

JW: I presume that, going into this match when the others have just gone off to the West Indies, this put some extra determination into your game.

GR: Yes, definitely. I realised probably a couple of weeks ago that I was getting too anxious when I went to the wicket, so I just took a step back from my game and reassessed my situation, and found that when I went out to the wicket I was more relaxed and able to play my natural game. And being left out of the touring squad definitely makes me more determined to prove the point that I should be there.

JW: Now, getting on to the match itself, could you start off by talking about the conditions, the pitch, the toss . . ?

GR: The toss really wasn't vital, even though the groundsman watered the wicket overnight, perhaps over-watered it, and the wicket was soft. But it was always going to be a good wicket, so the toss wasn't vital. We did want to bat first, but they won the toss and chose to bat. It's a good wicket, but perhaps not enough in it for the bowlers, and it was going to be like that throughout the three days.

JW: What are your thoughts about the Academy first innings?

GR: They batted fairly well. We let them off the hook in a few places when we had them tied down, but the main innings I can remember is Jason Young who scored 47. While he was out there he looked to play positively and hit the bad ball. Paul Strang [72] also batted well; we bowled the wrong line to him and gave him too many free shots. That was the one area where we let them off the hook.

Alester Maregwede scored 59, and it was actually the best I've seen Alester play for a couple of years. When he came on to the scene a few years ago he looked quite a good batsman with a lot of potential, but I think he's just gone off the burn the last couple of years. That was a good knock.

JW: Then there was your innings - were you expecting to open the batting in this match?

GR: Yes; in any long game of cricket I'd like to open the batting in view of moving up to the Test arena and hopefully opening with Grant Flower in the Test matches.

JW: You looked very relaxed, going for your shots very capably almost from the start.

GR: Yes; even though I've spoken about the patience in my game, if there's a bad ball to be put away I'm going to do it. It worked out for me in the first innings.

JW: The Academy players don't yet seem to have found their line and length consistently enough yet.

GR: On the wicket it was difficult for bowlers and they didn't have a genuine spinner. So they just relied on their seam bowlers who just couldn't extract enough out of that wicket. So if they missed line or length by a fraction it was easy to get the ball away.

I started off with about an hour to lunch, and I wanted to make sure I was still at the crease at lunch. So that was my objective, and Brad Robinson and I batted well that first hour, making sure we were none down by lunch and we had 50-odd on the board. Then after lunch I came out and decided to start again - I think I was on about 40-odd - and my first goal was to make sure I got my 50. From there I started again and batted like I was going for my first fifty again. Then I got into the nineties and the runs slowed off quite a lot, but I stuck it out and got my hundred. So I was really pleased to come back and get a hundred.

From then on we still hadn't reached their total [245] and we kept on losing wickets the other end, and were still 70 or 80 runs behind their total. So for me the next goal was to get to their total, and if I was still at the crease the runs would flow for me. And they did, so I got my third fifty then.

JW: Did you find it a nuisance not having a scoreboard that showed your individual score?

GR: No, not really. I was in contact with the guys on the balcony and I just asked them to keep me updated. They would just stick up a few fingers for the first digit and so many for the second digit, so I worked it out quite easily. From then on I just left it to my mind.

JW: How did you find the pitch was playing for the seamers and spinners at this stage?

GR: Like I said, the seamers struggled - if they missed line and length just slightly it was easy to put them away. Their spinners turned the ball but they weren't genuine spinners - a few of their balls threatened to bounce twice, if not three times. So it was quite difficult to play their spinners; there was no pace on the ball at all. Paul Strang would have been effective on the wicket if he had been fit to bowl; a wrist-spinner gets more pace on the spin, but he's coming back from injury and I'm sure we could have got on top of him.

JW: Did any of the Academy bowlers stand out in our mind?

GR: Travis Friend looks like he will be a good bowler. I think perhaps he bowled a little too short on this wicket and as a result didn't get a break-through, and so after three or four overs he wasn't a threat. But he definitely stood out from the rest of their bowlers.

JW: I forget who was speaking to me, but somebody on the first day told me his fastest ball is quicker than anything Henry Olonga can bowl.

GR: I don't think it would be that quick, but certainly he would be classed as a fast bowler. He's definitely got a lot of potential, if he's guided in the right way and if they leave some more grass on this wicket to help their seam attack. Then I think Travis will come out shining.

JW: Then the Academy second innings?

GR: We ended up 27 runs ahead of them going into the second innings, and their objective was just to bat out yesterday evening, and then to bat as long as possible today. I was disappointed with the way they approached their innings; I felt they should have put the bad ball away. Sure, defend the good ball and make sure they batted as long as possible, but if they did get a bad ball they should have put it away. They didn't do that. All the hard work they put into their first innings was lost in their second innings, and I felt they took steps backward then.

JW: I noticed mutters from some of the Mashonaland players about their failure to declare, but really they were in a difficult position, with insufficient time to win by conventional means, and with a declaration it would always be unlikely they would be able to bowl you out a second time in what was left.

GR: Yes, I don't think they would ever have won the game, but they certainly could have given it a crack. As I said, if they had batted more positively by putting away the bad ball, they wouldn't have had to bat all day for a draw. They would have built a total by putting away the bad ball, and we did bowl a lot of bad balls - full tosses, half-volleys, wide on the off side, wide on the leg side, and they still refused to put the bad ball away for four. So I think today they were their own worst enemies - they wouldn't have won but still they could have played a more exciting game.

JW: So, if you were giving advice to the Academy team as a whole, obviously you would start off by saying, "Hit the loose ball." Any other points you would want to emphasise?

GR: Yes, as you were saying, they've got to put away the bad ball. You look at any international side these days; if they get a bad ball they put it away for a boundary, in the gap, no questions asked. It doesn't matter if they're batting for a draw or going for a win - that goes without saying. In their bowling, perhaps they need to be a little but more disciplined and bowl one side of the wicket; they bowled both sides of the wicket to us, although I know with a left-hand/right-hand combination it does make it difficult for the bowlers.

JW: What are your personal objectives over the next few months?

GR: I've really got to score a lot of runs, and from my point of view fifties aren't going to count. I need to score hundreds. The Logan Cup in the next three or four weeks is going to give me an opportunity to get big runs. So that's my first objective. And then I'll be playing in the ICC tournament in April, which will be a series of one-day games against better opposition this time. I need to make my mark and get big runs so I can be outstanding among the batsmen.