Captain Chigumbura wants more

2011 ICC Cricket World Cup when the global showcase moves beyond the group stages.
Chigumbura and his men face a massive task, in their bid to breathe life into their campaign, when they take on a powerful Sri Lanka side here today in a big day/night game.
Yesterday the skipper faced the media, before the team’s training session at the Pallekele International Stadium and said his focus was to remain part of the World Cup party after the first round matches.
“I want to go to the next stage and the big challenge is about the game that we will play tomorrow (today),” said Chigumbura.
“If we all play our roles I think we have a better chance of going to the next round. We have been working on our batting, especially to try and keep our wickets, especially in the first 15 overs, which we haven’t done so far.
“The top order batsmen have to work harder to make sure they improve their innings and hopefully we will do that tomorrow and we’ll get a good score.
“Our first 15 overs have been the most disappointing part for all the games we have played so far. If we can keep our wickets in hand, especially in the first 15 overs, we can handle them but it we lose our wickets, it would be very hard.
“We have been working on that.”
Chigumbura said they learnt a lot during a session with West Indies legend Brian Lara during a training camp in Dubai before this World Cup and the challenge was just to put that into practice.
The Zimbabwean skipper expects the Pallekele wicket to offer assistance to the seam bowlers, just the way it behaved in the game between New Zealand and Pakistan.
“I saw the game yesterday, the wicket was assisting seamers and it wasn’t spinning a lot,” said Chigumbura.
“I think it’s going to remain the same, especially in the first 15 overs, and a little bit of turn in between.
“My seamers have been consistent bowling good line and length and if we correct our batting I always back my bowlers to defend our score.”
Chigumbura said his side was a team in transition that was getting better and better with each passing day.
“We are getting back to where we were a couple of years ago, there is a bit of competition for places back home and the introduction of the franchise system has seen better competition between teams and hopefully it will produce players who can compete.
“It all goes down to how much we want it.”
Chigumbura revealed that he had been cheered by Ireland’s performance and they will try to use that as an inspiration when they take on Sri Lanka. Former skipper Prosper Utseya has been impressive in this tournament and today he is likely to bat as high up the order as number four as he reaps the rewards for his consistency with both bat and ball. Yesterday he told The Herald that they were under pressure to win against Sri Lanka.
“We have put ourselves under pressure. We are still positive that if we play good cricket, we can get good results,” said Utseya.
“There is always hope in life.
“We have been working hard and we can only count on the work ethic we have put in.
“The records show that we don’t have a good record against Sri Lanka but this is the World Cup and it comes once in every four years and if you bring your A game, you never know what will happen.”
Utseya conceded that their batting has let them down so far.
“Upfront we haven’t managed to get a solid start and we haven’t had anyone staying through,” he said.
“I think we need a good platform and we need someone who can anchor the innings for us.”
But why has Utseya been impressive in this World Cup?
“Before I came here I just told myself that I wanted to give it my best because as I said earlier, the World Cup comes once in every four years,” said the all-rounder.
“I believe that I have prepared well and I’m trying to improve all the time and the challenge is to try and maintain that.”