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Eddie Chikamhi Senior Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE’S Lady Chevrons have set their sights on winning their upcoming game against the United States, at Takashinga tomorrow.
A victory will keep alive their hopes in the ongoing ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier 2021.
They suffered a setback in an eight-run defeat to Thailand, in their opening match.
Coach Adam Chifo said they needed to put in more work and have targeted victory against the Americans, to ease pressure, ahead of the tougher matches against the group’s top seeds, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
“Obviously, it was not a good start to the tournament. Losing the first game of the tournament puts a lot of pressure on anybody,’’ said Chifo.
“That was one of the matches to win.
“Unfortunately, it didn’t go our way. We need to beat the USA and then upset one of the big teams.
“The defeat put us under some form of pressure but anything is possible.
“We have hope and there is still a chance for us to get to the Super Six.’’
The home team need to improve discipline, with the ball, which saw them gifting Thailand with a handful of extras, which proved crucial, in the game.
“I thought we had ourselves to blame for this loss,’’ said Chifo.
“We conceded 22 extras and, at times, we were not disciplined enough with the ball.
“So, we were chasing, maybe 20-30 more runs than if we had been disciplined.
“But, having said that, we applied ourselves better, in terms of batting.
“One thing that we can take out of this, with regards to our batting, is that we have a process that we stuck to.
“Maybe, there were one or two overs that we missed in terms of cashing in, otherwise, if we do stick to our processes, we can score 250-plus in any match.’’
Zimbabwe could be inspired by the fact that USA, who are one of the lowly-ranked teams in Group B, conceded 322 runs to Bangladesh Women, yesterday.
Modester Mupachikwa and Sharne Mayers who look set to open the innings again, Josephine Nkomo, Precious Marange and skipper Mary-Anne Musonda, who led with an unbeaten knock of 69 off 65 deliveries, in the first game, give the Lady Chevrons enough muscle to dominate this match.
“I am just trying to motivate the guys and being realistic with individuals and where they lacked,’’ said Musonda.
“Everyone has to look at their individual performance, be realistic with where we went wrong and make sure that they come back fighting in the next couple of games.”
Zimbabwe are in Group B, alongside Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand and the United States.
Group A has Sri Lanka, Netherlands, West Indies and Ireland.
Three top teams from each group will proceed to the Super Six stage.
Then, the top three teams at the tournament will qualify for the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022, to be held in New Zealand, between March and April next year.
They will join five teams which have already qualified through the ICC Women’s Championship — Australia, England, India, South Africa and hosts New Zealand.
The three qualifiers, as well as the next two teams, will also seal places in the next ICC Women’s Championship.
Fixtures
Tomorrow: Zimbabwe v USA (Takashinga), Bangladesh v Thailand (HSC), Ireland v Netherlands (Sunrise)
Online Reporter
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