Chevrons let Zimbabwe down

TUESDAY July 4 will be a day that will forever be remembered in the history of Zimbabwe, not just by cricket fans but all sports lovers in the country.

The entire nation, regardless of whether they understood the game or not, rallied behind the Chevrons who had demonstrated that they had what it takes to qualify for the 2023 Men’s Cricket World Cup finals which will be staged in India in November.

Unfortunately it was not to be for the Chevrons who are not at the World Cup for the second consecutive time running. Zimbabwe missed out in the previous edition in 2019 in England after falling short against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and five years later, it was Scotland who stood in the way of the Chevrons.

One would say fate was already decided at the toss. Just like 2018, Zimbabwe won the toss and a near identical score was put on the board. In 2018 UAE scored 235 and on Tuesday, Scotland scored one less run, finishing on 234 runs.

It was heartbreak for millions of Zimbabweans who had rallied behind the team from the start of the tournament till the end of the road. Prior to the start of the match, all-rounder Sean Williams said whoever remains calm will have a good opportunity of sailing through and Scotland managed to do that.

The Scots managed to keep their heads in the game and landed blows which hurt the Chevrons. Speaking after the completion of the match, Zimbabwe captain Craig Ervine admitted that their opponents handled the pressure that came with the game better than they did.

“These games have a lot of pressure on both sides and I think today (Tuesday) Scotland handled the pressure a little bit better than we did,” said Ervine.

He said Zimbabwe lost it at the start of their batting innings after a brilliant Chris Sole opening spell with the ball for Scotland. Sole’s electric spell up front put them on the backfoot and made it difficult for the team to recover.

“We kind of recovered from that first onslaught and then losing wickets at regular intervals throughout the innings slowly put us back and the partnership between Ryan Burl and Sikandar Raza was probably one that needed to go another 50 to 60 runs to get us over the line,” said Ervine.

One thing that can be picked from the team was the failure to strike upfront with the new ball. Zimbabwe bowlers could not utilise the new ball, failing to take early wickets in the opening stages, something which their opponents were doing. The bowlers were not threatening and not asking the right questions in the beginning of their innings.

Poor bowling and giving away too many extras was also a cause for concern during the team’s campaign. In Tuesday’s game, Zimbabwean bowlers conceded over 50 runs in the last five overs, something which returned to haunt them in their chase. They did not finish their innings well with the ball.

Despite the heartbreak of failing to qualify, there are some positive picks from the campaign. The most notable being Sean Williams, who is the leading run scorer with 600 runs from seven innings, scoring three centuries and two 50s. Williams enjoyed one of finest forms in one day cricket history and his contribution was surely one to remember for a long time.

Some team records were broken along the way such as the highest one-day score in the history of Zimbabwean cricket. Another player who managed to get himself into the history books was fast bowler Richard Ngarava.

The left-handed fast bowler took one wicket on Tuesday and equalled Henry Olonga’s record for most consecutive ODI innings taking a wicket, which is 14 innings. Ngarava’s streak stretches from last year while Olonga’s was between 1999-2000.

He is in the elite company of players such as Eddo Brandes (12 innings; 1992-1993), Ray Price (12 innings; 2008-2009) and Heath Streak (10 innings; 2004-2005).

This was potentially the last attempt for Williams (36), Raza (37) and Ervine (37) at playing the World Cup before their illustrious careers come to an end. This, however, was however not the end of the road for the team with more cricket coming up in the next few weeks and months.

The Chevrons have been playing good cricket of late and that is something that they wish to continue doing despite the heartbreak.

“We have attracted large numbers of people to the grounds to watch cricket over the few months that we have been playing exciting cricket and we want to continue on that path. We have a lot of cricket towards the end of the year and the Afro T10 coming up,” said Ervine.

Sticking together is therefore crucial for the team’s recovery as they prepare for the inaugural Zim Afro T10 league which gets underway in Harare on 20 July. – @brandon_malvin