Houghton’s honeymoon ends

Darlington Gatsi
THE Chevrons’ 100 percent record under coach Dave Houghton came to a halt when they suffered a seven-wicket loss to Bangladesh in the second T20 International at Harare Sports Club yesterday.

The Tigers levelled the three-match series 1-1 after Zimbabwe won the opener by 17 runs on Saturday.

Zimbabwe have been in good form since Houghton took over the reins from Lalchand Rajput last month, but they failed to replicate Saturday’s form in yesterday’s game.

A combination of poor batting and fielding was the Chevrons’ Achilles heel.

Zimbabwe won the toss and elected to bat, posting 135-8 in their allotted 20 overs, and Bangladesh reached their target for the loss of just three wickets with 15 balls remaining.

The top-order batters crumbled, with four wickets falling in the first four overs.

Although Sikandar Raza stabilised the collapse with a gritty 63 runs, he had no support, with no meaningful partnerships formed.

Batting coach Lance ‘Zulu’ Klusener admitted that their batting let them down, but hailed Raza and Ryan Burl for their contribution.

“The options for the batters were okay, we just did not really execute it.

“We were trying to play positive cricket and sometimes getting out when trying to look positive can look careless, but I just think besides Craig Ervine, the rest was just execution which we did not get right today.

“We were always going to be under pressure at 20/5.

“The partnership between Raza and Burl was good for us as it was promising.

“I guess that is a positive we can take.

“I think as long as Raza and Burl were going, there was an opportunity to get something more competitive.

“We put ourselves under pressure from very early on,” said Klusener.

Ironically, the win over Zimbabwe, which ended Houghton’s five-match straight victories, ended Bangladesh’s five-match losing streak in T20.

Zimbabwe are using the series to fine tune their preparations for ICC T20 World Cup in Australia in October.

The Chevrons take on Bangladesh in the decider tomorrow, and Klusener has challenged the batters to rise to the challenge.

“We just need to execute our decisions a little bit better and I do not think there is much to change.

“Raza has been playing well, Wess (Madhevere) has been playing well, but at the same time we need, from a Zimbabwe team point of view, everybody to contribute to that whole batting unit.

“Our challenge is that we need to be rotating the strike.

“We need to be running singles and doubles and taking advantage where we can,” said Klusener.