admincritical times.
We have our own men in that group — Tatenda Taibu, Brendan Taylor and Hamilton Masakadza.
Masakadza is one of the most celebrated, and one of the most criticised, cricketers in the national team set-up.
He has come in for heavy criticism for disappointing performances and was dropped from the team that went to the ICC World Cup last year.
But Masakadza hasn’t let that affect him and appears to have coped with it well, using it as an inspiration to take his game to new heights.
“Cricket, just like any sport, has its ups and downs, but I have my downs at exactly the wrong moments! So I am just trying to build up from what I am doing now and hopefully I’ll keep getting better from here on,” said Masakadza.
The PRAN AFL Twenty20 tri-series appears to show that Masakadza has found his touch again after erratic batting performances over the last two years.
“It was very disappointing that I wasn’t scoring as heavily as I wanted to. I think I had a period when I went six or seven innings in ODIs without getting past ten runs,” said Masakadza.
“But the worst thing about it is that during practise sessions in the nets I felt I was hitting the ball well enough and getting into good positions but I just could score on the pitch.
“I was getting out early even when I knew I was feeling quite good about my game, which was all quite hard. It’s easier to deal with it if you know you’re struggling and you’re not scoring.
“I was obviously disappointed with myself but it spurred me to work even harder and keep focusing on the future because I knew it will have to turn at some stage and I am happy it is turning now.”
Masakadza is also the Mountaineers’ captain, winners of the 2011 Twenty20 the Stanbic Bank 20 series, Zimbabwe’s premier Twenty20 tournament.
“I quite enjoy the T20 format – it gives me a lot of freedom to express myself. I also enjoy the Test matches as well so I wouldn’t call myself a T20 specialist as such but I would definitely say Test cricket is my favourite format followed by T20,” he said.
He says he will use his recently-found good form to help Zimbabwe in the upcoming Twenty20 World Cup in Sri Lanka.
“I would like to keep building on this start that I had to this season and this tournament leading to the T2O World Cup, hopefully we will keep this up for the good of the team.”
He was voted the man-of-the series after playing a big role in helping Zimbabwe win the PRAN AFL Twenty20 series.
“I am ecstatic, over the moon. All the hard work is paying off. We just kept thinking hang in there and stay calm,” he said yesterday.
“BT (Brendan Taylor) and I knew the longer we stayed together, the closer we would get to the total.”
Masakadza’s scores this year
v South Africa 58 June tri-series
v South Africa 39 June tri-series
v Bangladesh 56 June tri-series
v South Africa 55 June tri-series
v Bangladesh 62 June tri-series
v Bangladesh 102 (warm-up) in June
v Bangladesh 14 (warm-up) in June
v New Zealand 62 in February
v New Zealand 53 in February.
Online Reporter