Online Reporter
Tinashe Kusema
Zimpapers Sports Hub
ZIMBABWE cricket coach Justin Sammons was the personification of calm and collected as he put the Chevrons team through their paces in Colombo, Sri Lanka, yesterday.
The Chevrons’ eight-wicket demolition of Oman on Monday gave his charges the perfect start to their ICC T20 World Cup campaign.
And Sammons was all smiles.
“I thought we were superb against Oman,” said Sammons. “The guys were on it, especially from an execution point of view, and everything just clicked,” he said.
After the opening round of games in Group B, Australia are currently perched at the top of the table with two points.
This comes after the Aussies thrashed Ireland by 67 runs yesterday.
Australia elected to bat, after which they put 182 runs for six on the board and then bowled out Ireland for 115 runs.
Australia, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka opened the tournament with convincing wins and are only separated by net run rate.
The Aussies top the group with Zimbabwe and then Sri Lanka following behind with net run rates of 3.350, 2.702 and 1.000 respectively.
Ireland and Oman are the only win-less teams in the group and wrap up the log standings.
Sammons has, however, refused to read too much into Zimbabwe’s victory over Oman, especially given the fact that bigger tests await them. Zimbabwe play Australia tomorrow and then meet Ireland on Tuesday.
They will finish their group assignments with a date against co-hosts Sri Lanka on February 18.
The Chevrons’ coach has called for calm, pressing on the importance of execution again when the Chevrons square off against Australia tomorrow.
“It’s going to come down to the execution of our skills,’’ he said.
“We will have our plans in place, as we have done our homework on the opposition and taken the conditions into consideration, to formulate and set a game plan.
“However, success or failure will all boil down to how we will be able to execute our skills,” said Sammons.
Sammons is hoping to build onto Zimbabwe’s great start, with both the bowling and batting coming into play.
The Chevrons’ pace trio had a great game against Oman, taking a combined nine wickets for 54 runs. The trio of Blessing Muzarabani, Richard Ngarava and Brad Evans all claimed three scalps, with the spoils shared evenly at three wickets for 16, 17 and 18 runs, respectively.
Muzarabani and Ngarava were especially brutal with the “Twin Towers”, as they are affectionately known, slicing through Oman’s top order during the power play.
Sammons now wants a repeat of that feat, this time against Australia.
“We can’t get ahead of ourselves, and that is an important thing to note,” he said.
“There is still a long, long way to go in this tournament, so we can’t get ahead of ourselves.
“It’s ultimately about taking it one ball at a time and one game at a time.
“We will, obviously, take confidence from the Oman win, but we have to move cautiously going forward.
“I want the players to go out there and express themselves.
“This is a great opportunity, playing against one of the world’s best teams, Australia.
“Australia have had the most success at World Cups, and playing against them is an opportunity for us to go out there and show the world what we are capable of.
“I want them to go out and have fun, enjoy the experience and express themselves as much as they can,” he said. The only blemish to come out of the Oman win was Brendan Taylor, one of the team’s senior statesmen, being forced to retire hurt during Zimbabwe’s chase.
Taylor’s availability remains up in the air as the Chevrons camp awaits some scan results on the veteran.
“We are waiting for confirmation from a scan that he went for.
“Once we get that confirmation back, we will know what’s going to happen going forward,” Sammons said.
