Chronicle Editor
Brandon Moyo, Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE square off against Namibia in their final International Cricket Council Men’s T20 World Cup warm up match at the Junction Oval in the early hours of today.
The match is scheduled to start at 0200hrs (Zimbabwean time) and will be the team’s last warm up before the big event starts on Sunday.
Zimbabwe lost their first fine tuning encounter against Asia champions, Sri Lanka by 33 runs on Tuesday and will be looking to redeem themselves against Namibia.
The Craig Ervine-captained Chevrons suffered a further blow in the match after the 22-year-old Wessley Madhevere retired hurt while batting on 43 runs, Zimbabwe’s highest score on the day.
The extent of his injury is yet to be known but the Dave Houghton-led technical team will be hoping the 22-year-old Madhevere will be available and ready for the World Cup as he is one of the team’s reliable batters.
In the first warm up match the Zimbabwean skipper, Craig Ervine used 11 bowlers with only five of them picking up wickets as the Chevrons restricted the Sri Lankans to 188-5 in 20 overs, led by Kusal Mendis’ 54 runs. In their chase, the Chevrons were restricted to 155-5 after a 39 runs opening wicket stand between Ervine and Regis Chakabva.
After tomorrow’s warm up match, Zimbabwe will then begin their quest for a Super 12 appearance on Monday against Ireland before facing the West Indies and finishing off their group games against Scotland. The Chevrons are in group B while group A has Namibia, Sri Lanka, Netherlands and the United Arab Emirates.
The top two teams from both groups will make it to the next round of the tournament which is the Super 12s where they will join South Africa, England, Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand, Bangladesh, India and Afghanistan. — @brandon_malvin
Online Reporter