Chevrons in Sri Lanka do-or-die match

Brandon Moyo, [email protected]

THE Chevrons’ wish was for them to be 2-0 by now in the T20I series against Sri Lanka but that is not the case and the three match series is tied at one-all with only a game left to go.

All is, however, not lost for Zimbabwe who are in search of their first-ever T20I series victory over the Lions of Sri Lanka and will have the last bite at the cherry in the third and final game of the series — and tour — at the iconic R Premadasa International Cricket Stadium (RPICS) in Colombo today.

Having lost the One Day International (ODI) series 2-0, Zimbabwe now have an opportunity of winning the T20i series.

High in spirits after the record breaking last over win on Tuesday, the Sikandar Raza-captained Zimbabwean team will be feeling confident going into today’s decider.

A win today will see them scale to heights no other Chevrons team has ever reached.

In the first two matches, the Chevrons showed character, courage and hunger to win and will need to keep the same fighting mentality in today’s encounter.

As Raza put it after Tuesday’s heist, his team made a promise to Zimbabwe and they intend to stick by it. The time to fulfil that promise has come, the Chevrons need to restore the fans’ faith.

As the skipper, his wish is to win two games, which will help seal the series for his team.

“Like I said in the last game, these are a group of boys that will turn this ship around.

“These are the group of boys that have made a promise to the country and to the fans. And if you’d ask me, I’d rather win two games — the first we got really close — but today was really unbelievable,” Raza said after the match.

However, it will not be an easy match for the Chevrons and they will have to bring their “A” game to cause an upset and return home with their first ever T20I series trophy against Sri Lanka.

The Lions have proved to be a tough opponent for the Chevrons.

“Everyone else knows when you come to Sri Lanka you are going to get a tough series because they compete.

“We knew it was going to be tough coming here but credit to the guys, people have been working so hard in the nets,” said Luke Jongwe during a post-match press conference on Tuesday.

Former skipper, Brendan Taylor took to social media to wish the Chevrons the best of luck in today’s crunch encounter.

“Great comeback performance by Zimbabwe Cricket after a close loss the other day against Sri Lanka, good luck for the series decider,” Taylor posted on X (formerly Twitter).

Zimbabwe’s bowlers have shown intent in the first two matches and will have to keep the same form going into today’s riveting encounter. However, they have let the game slip away from them at the death and will have to keep it tight towards the back end of their bowling innings. Also crucial in their quest to re-write history will be the experience of Craig Ervine, Sean Williams and Raza with Ervine laying the foundation in Tuesday’s game.

The 37-year-old Ervine played the anchoring innings, alongside Brian Bennett whom they put on 74 runs off 53 balls for the second wicket which helped keep Zimbabwe in the game before late cameos from Ryan Burl (13 runs off nine balls), Jongwe (25 runs not out off 12 balls), and Madande (15 runs not out off five deliveries), still with half a chance.

Having failed to defend 14 runs in the 20th over of the first match, on Tuesday the Chevrons won the game in the last over of the match where they successfully chased what appeared to be a difficult 20 runs. The most Zimbabwe had scored from an over before the last one was 13 runs and the 20 looked like a difficult ask, however, Jongwe and Madande saw the team through.

The 20 runs scored by Jongwe and Madande are now the third highest most target runs successfully chased in the final over in men’s T20Is. The highest is 21, which was chased by Australia versus India in 2023 and by England versus West Indies in 2023 as well.

In today’s riveting encounter, Zimbabwe will have to be hands on with both bat and ball and also with their fielding.

Fans, all over social media, have been rallying behind them to win today’s encounter.

The game is scheduled to start at 15:30PM (Zimbabwean time) at the RPICS. – @brandon_malvin