ZIM FACE MIGHTY INDIA

Tinashe Kusema

THE permutations and chances of the Chevrons progressing to the ICC T20 World Cup semi-finals do not make for pleasant reading.

They entered the Super Eight stage of the competition as the unlikeliest of underdogs.

A couple of costly fielding errors and a tame batting effort during their 107-run defeat to West Indies on Monday has left Zimbabwe with a lot of catching up to do.

Today, they take on mighty India in Chennai, knowing nothing short of victory will keep their hopes of progressing alive.

The Chevrons best-case scenario is to win both their remaining fixtures and hope West Indies does the same.

For Chevrons coach, Justin Sammons, the changes in venue were among the major obstacles his charges faced against West Indies.

“Certainly, I think, you know, from a boundary size point of view, I think it was probably one of the biggest differences,” said Sammons.

“I think a lot of those mis-hits will go for six at the smaller fields but they would be out at the bigger ones like we had in Sri Lanka.

“For Zimbabwe, a lot of the cricket, over the last couple of years, has been played in Harare and Harare Sports Club is a really big, big ground.

“So, again, it’s good learning at the end of the day.

“And, we take those lessons and we move on,” he said.

The defending champions also suffered a big loss in their opening Super Eight fixture, which South Africa took by 76 runs.

“India are the number one team in the world and we know it’s going to be an challenge,” said Sammons.

“However, we are certainly going to give it our all and we are not going to leave anything out there on the park.

“You can’t control the results when you are playing against top quality teams like India, but we are certainly going to give it our best.

“The morale in the team is still very good, excellent, the guys are enjoying each other, sharing each other’s success and failures,” he said.

Sammons said he has been highlighting to his lads doing what they have been doing well.

“If we are chasing a big score or we feel a big score is needed, we don’t actually need to change our process” he said.

“We can still stay to our process and get the job done at the same time.”

Among the players to watch today will be the duo of Varun Chakravarthy and Brad Evans for India and Zimbabwe.

Chakravarthy and Evans are currently the number one and five ranked T20 bowlers in the world.