Chevrons Off To a Winning Start
By Perkins-Tino Bare
The Chevrons got off to a winning start
in their qualifying campaign for the T20 World Cup as they beat Hong
Kong by 14 runs in a match played out in Nagpur India. After losing
the toss, the Chevrons batted first and they set Hong Kong a target
of 158 but they could only manage to post 144 as the Chevrons and
Afghanistan drew first blood in their qualifying group which also
contains Scotland.
The Chevrons lost the toss and had to
settle for batting first in a match that they were expected to win.
Hamilton Masakadza opened the batting with Vusi Sibanda whilst
Richmond Mutumbami was on cue as the 3rd batsman which
looks like pretty much the order of things for the Chevrons in terms
of T20 cricket. Masakadza was the first to lose his wicket after
having posted 20 runs on the board. His coun terpart Vusi Sibanda was
the better of the pair as he had a final score of 59 hitting 5 fours
and 2 sixes in the process. It was a goo day for Vusi as it was his
maiden T20 half-century which saw him surpassing his high score of
49.
Richmond Mutumbami did not sparkle much
as he holed on to long on for a second ball duck. The trio of
Williams, Sikandder Raza and Malcolm was expected to stabilize the
fall of wickets and add some depth into that middle order. Sean
Williams had a score of 12 whilst Sikander Raza could only manage 3
runs. This is definitely an area of concern as the batsman were
posting ridiculously low scores. This is in light of the fact that we
were playing against Hong Kong which is an associate nation and we
were therefore expected to win the match itself let alone post big
scores. If players like Hamilton Masakadza, who is in form and
Sikander Raza fail to get a half century against Hing Kong then it
calls for some work t be done. The same also applies to Sean Williams
and honestly some work needs to be done especially in that middle
order.
Malcolm Waller was the only player who
added something decent to the scoreboard as he had a score of 26 only
clearing the boundary once for four in the process. He however
stabilized the fall of wickets as they had the highest partnership on
the day with Vusi Sibanda of 62. After Waller Chigunmbura was the
other batsman who had a pretty much decent score of 30 with the
highlight of his innings being his 3 sixes. There was a bit of a
scare as the Chevrons lost 3 wickets in 8 balls leaving them at 127-7
after Donald Tiripano also went for a duck. The Chevrons were indeed
in a bit of a mess but then Chigumbura led from the front as he had
two partnerships at the end which came in handy. One was with
Wellington Masakadza for 13 and the other with Tinashe Panyangara for
18. Elton really showed some character especially with his 30 off 13
balls, and the only thing is that his leadership qualities are only
starting to crop up when he has already been `chopped` off those
responsibilities.
On the bowling side Donald Tiripano and
Tendai Chatara were the most dominant as they boothe had 2 wickets
whilst Wellington Masakadza and Sikander Raza could only grab one for
themselves. The bowlers had an average economy of 7.00 with
Panyangara and Tiripano conceding 27 runs apiece in their allotted 4
overs.
The Chevrons now sit on top of their
group with 2 points and their next match is against Scotland who lost
to Afghanistan.
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