Chawaguta disappointed

Jeffrey Murimbechi Sports Correspondent
NATIONAL Under-19 cricket coach Walter Chawaguta is disappointed with his team’s recent performance in the ICC under-19 World Cup in Dubai after their losses reduced them to battling against low-level teams.
Zimbabwe will face the United Arab Emirates for an 11th place play-off today, after the teenagers lost to Bangladesh by 72 runs in a plate semi-final on Tuesday.

Chawaguta believes Zimbabwe have the capacity to compete with the top teams and was left frustrated with his side’s poor showing.
“No I am not impressed with the team’s performance in this tournament, we are better than the plate final. Our skills match anyone of the top teams but our application has been poor which has brought about inconsistency in our play for a bigger part of the tournament.”

“Bangladesh are a good side. Before we played them, I watched them play against Afghanistan and Australia they had the semblance of a well-drilled side, but they seemed to crumble under pressure they are a typical sub-continent team whose players love to score freely.

“We needed to be disciplined when we bowled to them and we should have kept them quiet and subdued them to induce errors,” said Chawaguta.

Zimbabwe’s batting has been inconsistent and unable to maintain their momentum throughout the tournament with Chawaguta’s batsmen failing to regularly give match-winning performances.

The top order has not lived up to expectations by not always setting a firm foundation to build an innings, thus Zimbabwe found themselves in a situation where they were reduced to the territory of minnows.