Chronicle Editor
Brandon Moyo, Sports Reporter
“Catches win matches” is a phrase that the Zimbabwe women national cricket team will learn the hard way after they fell four runs short of a maiden World Cup appearance.
With the final hurdle in sight, Zimbabwe ladies just needed one win against Ireland to make sure that the long wait to play at the World Cup came to reality. However, like their male counterparts in 2018 in Harare, the ladies fell agonisingly short by just a few runs in a nail-biting match.
Zimbabwe had been enjoying an impressive run-in form, from the preparations of the qualifiers to the main event itself where they won their first two matches to assert dominance and show their intentions.
In their first match, the Lady Chevrons thumped Papua New Guinea by eight wickets and followed their impressive start with a six wickets win over Thailand thus booking their place in the semi-final. A four wicket defeat to United Arab Emirates (UAE) could not stop the Gary Brent Lady Chevrons from topping the group and progressing to the next round of the competition.
During the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, the men’s team elected to bowl first in their do or die match against UAE, and it seems the same fate was waiting for the Lady Chevrons as they also elected to bowl first in their make-or-break tie.
After dropping four catches in the field, the Lady Chevrons were set a target of 138 to win after they restricted Ireland to 137-6 in 20 overs.
A slow start with the bat proved costly for the Mary-Anne Musonda-captained Lady Chevrons as they fell just four runs off a ticket to South Africa. Sharne Mayers top-scored for Zimbabwe with 39 runs while Musonda scored 31 runs.
With 15 runs required in the last over, Josephine Nkomo and Precious Marange in the middle of the park managed to score 10, falling just four runs from the target.
Zimbabwe missed out on the last edition in 2019 following the country’s suspension by the International Cricket Council (ICC) when the world cricket governing body deemed that the action taken by the Sports and Recreation Commission to suspend the Tavengwa Mkhuhlani led Zimbabwe Cricket board amounted to violation of the ICC statutes and their spot was taken by Namibia whom they beat in the African qualifiers.
The defeat yesterday means that Zimbabwe women’s World Cup appearance continues to be just a dream.
The Lady Chevrons will have another chance as there is another T20 World Cup in 2024 which will be hosted by Bangladesh before India hosts the 2025 ODI World Cup.
The eighth edition of the Women’s T20 World Cup is scheduled for 9-26 February 2023 after it was moved from its original slot at the end of this year.
Online Reporter