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Blessing Malinganiza in Abu Dhabi, UAE
A second heavy defeat in three games has left Zimbabwe facing an early exit in the ICC Women T20 World Cup global qualifiers where only two teams qualify for the finals.
Zimbabwe will now need a miracle to progress beyond the group phase and they only have one match against the Netherlands to achieve that.
Ireland batted first and made 176/3 of their 20 overs and then restricted Zimbabwe to 120/8 off their 20 overs.
The Irish are all but assured of a top finish from Group B.
Despite the defeat, Lady Chevron’s vice-captain Josephine Nkomo remains hopeful of the team’s qualification for the ICC T20 World Cup to be hosted by Bangladesh later this year.
The shock loss to minnows Vanuatu on the opening day of the qualifiers will likely haunt the Lady Chevrons.
“I have hope, the semi-finals are still on the table for everyone hence we just have to make sure that in our last game, we are on point.
“We have to quickly dust ourselves up and see how it goes because the group is still open for everyone at the moment,” Nkomo.
Sitting third in group B of the qualifiers behind Ireland and Netherlands, Nkomo admits that her charges have struggled at the tournament but remain optimistic about progressing.
Zimbabwe plays the Netherlands in a must-win match tomorrow to remain in contention for a semi-final spot.
“We won one game for starters but we haven’t had a good tournament so far. We’ve been struggling with the bat quite a lot.
“It’s just been highs and lows and I hope we can bounce back because so far it hasn’t been good for us.
“We need that one game that will boost our confidence, I just really hope it’s coming soon, probably in the next game against Netherlands,” she said.
With the Lady Chevron’s destination of progressing to the semi-finals not in their hands, Nkomo feels the team has found itself in this position after a shock defeat against Vanuatu last Thursday.
“The first loss did affect us, when we got into that game we were the favourites and we just let everyone down.
“Of course, it’s not easy to bounce back from that but we did well again UAE we still need that mentality that we had going into the UAE game so if we can have a positive mindset going into the Netherlands game then definitely we might be able to get over the line,” said Nkomo.
Meanwhile, after winning the toss, Zimbabwe skipper Mary-Anne Musonda chose to field hoping for a repeat of Saturday when they comfortably beat the UAE.
However, the decision backfired this time as Ireland went on to post a competitive score of 176 runs in 20 overs for the loss of three wickets.
The total was built around an opening partnership of 130 runs by Amy Hunter and Gaby Lewis.
The partnership was to be dismantled off the second ball of the 15th over when Sahrne Mayers caught Lewis off a Kelis Ndhlovu delivery.
Hunter was to follow two overs later as she was caught by Modester Mupachikwa off a Josephine Nkomo delivery.
Zimbabwe claimed their final wicket of the day through a run out of Orla Prendergast off the last ball of the Ireland innings.
A target of 177 runs to win, the total seemed to be an uphill task for the Lady Chevrons who have recently been caught wanting when chasing high scores.
It was to be the same case of being found wanting when chasing as only two Zimbabwean batters managed double figures.
The Lady Chevrons were restricted to 120 runs off their allotted 20 overs for the loss of eight wickets.
Skipper, Musonda came two runs shy of a half-century as she scored 48 runs off 39 balls, the highest by a Zimbabwe batter.
The second-highest score came from Mupachikwa, who made 27 runs off 28 balls.
The rest of the Zimbabwe batters failed to record double figures.
Online Reporter