Online Reporter
Eddie Chikamhi-Zimpapers Sports Hub
ZIMBABWE men’s cricket team coach Justin Sammons has taken the recent series whitewash by Afghanistan as a timely wake-up call for the Chevrons in their preparations for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup coming up in less than three months.
The Chevrons’ handicaps in the shortest version were exposed during the 0-3 series defeat, as they were dominated all round by the visitors.
The defeat came on the back of some encouraging performances in recent series against Sri Lanka and Namibia which had raised Zimbabwe’s hopes ahead of the global show-piece.
But the Afghans, semi-finalists of the previous T20 World Cup, had plenty to impart to the hosts before their expected return to the global stage early next year.
Zimbabwe are set to be part of the cricket jamboree in India and Sri Lanka in February-March, having put behind themselves the disappointment of failing to qualify for the previous two editions.
“At the end of the day, that’s what we have done over the last period. We’ve had our tough losses, and we’ve taken those learnings. It’s just now we’ve got to find a way to be more consistent,” said Sammons.
“We have played good cricket, and we’ve sort of slipped again. It’s about finding a little bit more consistency. Again, also understanding it’s the nature of teaching cricket.
“So, you’re not always going to have complete consistency, especially as a young team like we have and there are going to be those ups and then those downs, and hopefully in the future, whoever knows how long it is, that consistency comes in. But we’re making sure we take the lessons from the losses.” Zimbabwe showed batting shortcomings in the first two matches, in which they failed to last the distance facing quality bowling from the Asians.
They lost the first match by 53 runs, after they were bowled out for 127 runs, chasing Afghanistan’s 180/6.
The Chevrons batted first in the second match but the fortunes did not change after they crashed to 125 runs all out before succumbing to a seven wickets defeat.
But then, the bowlers were also brought under an intense spotlight in the third and final match on Sunday. The Afghanistan batsmen plundered 210/3. Although Zimbabwe showed some fight with the bat, they still fell short by nine runs.
“Playing a team like this — this is a good T20 team. There’s a reason they made the semifinals of the World Cup. They’ve got all the attributes and qualities within their team.
“So, it’s about playing the best. It’s seeing how they go about a business. It’s about adjusting how we go about ours when we’re playing them. Unless you’re playing them, you can’t do that,” said Sammons. Zimbabwe showed some positive cricket in the third T20I, in which they scored 201 runs. But skipper Sikander Raza lamented the lack of team performances during the series.
“I think the difference has been the other teams put up a performance together, whereas Zimbabwe is still finding performance from one or two guys here, one or two guys there.
“It hasn’t been a collective performance from all of us, and hence the reason why we don’t wrap up close games and we don’t win series. But I think that is also a positive that a lot of us are actually finding those performances,” he said.
“The biggest disappointment was the first two games; we didn’t bat well. So, for me, that was the biggest disappointment.
“But what is the positive? I think when we demanded more from each other, we delivered. Unfortunately, we couldn’t string a whole team performance together.
“I think the next few months are very crucial because I feel like the thing that I said, that we have departments firing within the game, but we haven’t got a complete game yet.
“I think the next few months are really important for Zimbabwe. Because the more T20 games we play, I think those missing puzzles, those complete team performances, I think we will form that puzzle, and we will start to have those complete performances where we win more games than lose.
“I think it is very important that we try and get those things right as quickly as possible so that Zimbabwe is going to the World Cup with a winning habit and not just still trying to work at things.”
