Chevrons in Disheartening Loss

By Perkins-Tino Bare

The Zimbabwe Cricket team the Chevrons were bundled at the Qualifying stages of the World Cup T20 by Afghanistan as they lost to them by a whopping 59 runs.

Afghanistan batted first and they set the Chevrons a target of 187 which was not going to be an easy task for the guys who had gotten used to posting 120 odd runs for T20. Afghanistan, an associate nation secured their third successive appearance at the expense of the Chevrons after Mohammed Nabi starred for the Afghans with a half century. Shahzad chipped in with 40 runs whilst Shenwari had 43 runs which added to Afghanistan`s total.

Panyangara was the pick of the bowlers on the Chevrons` side as he had 3 wickets byut they came expensively. Chatara and Donald Tiripano were the most expensive of our bowlers as they had figures of 0-34 and 1-41 respectively.

The Chevrons innings never really took off with Panyangara being the highest on a pathetic batting list with a mere 17 runs. All of our first 4 batsmen could posted double figures with Vusi Sibanda, Hamilton Masakadza, Richmond Mutumbami and Sean Williams all failing to get past 15 runs. This is rather dissapointing and one then gets to understand why our batting coach Marvin Attapatu opted for a short contract. Hamilton Masakadza really has top be the biggest disappointment especially considering the form that he was in posting 80s and 90s only to go and cool off when we needed him the most.

Malcolm Waller, Sikander Raza and elton Chigumbura were as equally pathetic in the middle order as the three had a combined score of 32 which is never going to be enough even when you are playing associate nations. One thing that is striking about the Chevrons batting line-up is that everyone chiiped in with a run or two and there were no tales of ducks for the day so could be a positive if not the only we could draw from the match. But then it still comes back to the point that all of our batsmen contribute to that pathetic score of 127.

The Chevrons never really got their campaign off to a flying start as they staggered their way till that deciding match against Afghanistan. Beating Hong Kong by a mere 14 runs and then going on to brush off Scotland by a mere 11 runs. It just goes on to show that it was well on its way for the Chevrons as these are not really good cricketing nations. We do no0t even have to add the issue of them being associate nations their general performances on the field of play are not really that good its just that our boys are worse off.  

Afghanistan go on to join the West Indies, South Africa, England and Sri Lanka in the super 10 stages whilst the Chevrons come back home again the only difference being that they  did not even play to the standards of Zimbabwe Cricket in general.

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