Online Reporter
WHAT a comprehensive win by the Chevrons yesterday as they sealed a 2-1 ODI series win over Ireland at Harare Sports Club.
Many times, we have seen the Chevrons put themselves in such a good position to win a series but they have ultimately failed to deliver.
Yesterday, they got it right with a nine-wicket win in which they chased the 240 target for the loss of just one wicket.
The openers Ben Curran and Broan Bennett set the platform with a century opening stand with the former, who has proved to be a great addition to the team, scoring an unbeaten century.
Bennett fell just two runs of what would have been a deserved half century while skipper Craig Ervine came and finished the job with an unbeaten half century.
Bennett, the best of the young prospects in the Chevrons team, was duly named the player of the series after scoring 247 runs in the three ODI matches.
Chevrons captain Craig Ervine said they are “ecstatic” after banishing their demons to beat Ireland for the first time in a bilateral series.
He paid tribute to all the players for coming to the party with his bowlers restricting the Irish to 240 and then the batters chasing the target without the usual bleeps and blunders.
Trevor Gwandu took two wickets while there were two wickets for Richard Ngarava.
We have also seen Wessly Madhevere batting well during this tour of the Irish.
It’s quite refreshing to see him doing that because there is no question that he is a very talented young cricketer.
There has always been a belief that he has the talent to really make a big impression.
His problem, it seems, has been his off-the-field issues.
There have been questions about his conduct and whether he has the right focus to be a professional cricketer who can perform at the top level with the consistency which his talent promises.
His case was not helped by that ba for substance abuse but we are happy to note that he appears to have buried that ghost and is now firmly focussed on his job.
He is not the first sportsman to make a mistake and he will not be the last.
What matters is how one rebounds from making a mistake and we are happy to see that Madhevere is now fully focussed on his job.
We can also see the value which the coaching staff is bringing into our national team and we are seeing some positives.
We shouldn’t have lost the only Test against the Irish and that we did was because we failed to consolidate our advantage, when we had the chance to do that, and ended up under pressure in the second innings.
We want to see the Chevrons winning more often and hopefully they will be doing that in their forthcoming assignments.
We love our cricket and we take a lot of pride from the fact that we are one of the two strongest cricket playing nations in Africa.
