Gary Brent impressed by Lady Chevrons performance

ZIMBABWE senior women’s national cricket team head coach, Gary Brent was impressed with the way his charges fared in the recently ended 2023 International Cricket Council (ICC) Women’s T20 World Africa Qualifier where they managed to complete a clean sweep of all their matches.

The Lady Chevrons proved a class above all their opponents, winning the regional tournament to proceed to the final hurdle, which will be the global World Cup. Brent’s team played five matches and won all of them in convincing fashion.

Speaking after their six wickets win over the hosts, Uganda in the final on Sunday, Brent said his team, which is captained by Mary Anne-Musonda, played impressive cricket throughout the tournament which was testament to the amount of hard work they have been putting in behind the scenes.

Proceeding to the global competition qualifier was not just the target for Brent and his team as they had set their eyes on winning the tournament, a feat which they managed to achieve, to round off their impressive campaign in Uganda.

“We are absolutely delighted at the result of the tournament. I thought the girls played exceptionally well and they played five games of really good cricket and we dominated each and every game that we played so that was very pleasing.

“The qualifier was our first step and then obviously to win the tournament was our step two and to be able to do that in the manner in which it was done was very pleasing. It’s testament to the hard work that we put in for the last three or four months, we worked really hard and those have paid off really well and I’m delighted that the girls did so well,” said Brent.

Lady Chevrons’ opening batter, Modester Mupachikwa was named the Most Valuable Player of the Tournament and the Batter of the Tournament having scored 131 runs in five innings at an average of 43,66.

Another seasoned campaigner in the Lady Chevrons camp, Precious Marange had an impressive campaign with ball in hand, taking 13 wickets in five innings as well at an average of just 3,92.

Zimbabwe used an unchanged team in all their five matches and Brent said another thing that was crucial to their success was their unity within the camp.

“One stand-out fact is our team spirit. The girls are really bonding together as a unit, they are a great team and we have been given a lot of complIments by people in and around the organisations, all around in Uganda and from other countries just on how the girls had gelled as a unit and how well they played. It’s a very pleasing result and I am a very happy coach,” he said.

It was the Lady Chevrons and Uganda who managed to progress to the global qualifier which will be hosted in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) next year.

The two African nations joined the eight other teams that had already qualified to determine who will proceed to the World Cup to take on already-qualified Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa and West Indies.