The Sunday Mail
Don Makanyanga
Sports Reporter
Zimbabwe senior national cricket team coach, Dave Houghton, has challenged senior players to take a leading role in the team’s quest to qualify for next year’s ICC T20 World Cup.
He was speaking after the team’s less-than-stellar start to the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Africa Qualifiers in Namibia last week.
The Chevrons began the competition, which is being played in a round-robin format, with a bruising seven-wicket defeat to hosts Namibia on Wednesday.
They, however, bounced back with a nine-wicket win over Tanzania the next day.
The problem was not so much with the results but the manner in which the team played.
It was evident that Namibia and Zimbabwe, in particular, entered the competition as clear favourites to seal the two World Cup slots.
Their match-up was viewed as the decider as to which team would take top spot at the end of the competition.
But Namibia completely dominated the match, as the hosts won the toss and restricted the Chevrons to 134 runs for eight during the two teams’ opener.
Only four Zimbabwean batters — Craig Ervine (36), Sikandar Raza (20), Wellington Masakadza (11) and Ryan Burl (27) — managed to make double-digit figures, as runs were scarce. The Chevrons had one of their worst performances this year.
The hosts made light work of the target, with opener Nikolaas Davin putting up a player-of-the-match performance with his quick-fire 89 runs off 45 balls. Namibia raced to the target, scoring 134 runs inside 14.4 overs and severely dented Zimbabwe’s net run rate.
The team did, however, bounce back and beat Tanzania by nine wickets the next day.
Unfortunately, many still believe the East Africans should not have scored as many as 96 for nine in their allotted 20 overs.
Houghton has since revealed that he gave the boys the hair-dryer treatment in-between the matches.
“Some things are meant to stay within the team confines but, in a broad sense, I asked for more from the senior guys,” said Houghton.
“I emphasised to the remaining group on the need for better performances from them, too.
“I don’t apologise for my harsh criticism after the first game, as I very seldom do that.
“However, it was required and it has had a good reaction.”
The former Zimbabwe international feels that after the hard talk he had with the team, the Chevrons should continue winning and seal one of the two available World Cup spots.
“We would have wanted to win both games, as it would have put us in a great position, but we played poorly against Namibia,” added the Chevrons gaffer.
“Though it’s true to say that they (Namibia) are a vastly improved side and difficult to beat, we were just poor on the day.
“We had a good, long and hard discussion overnight, and I am pleased to say that the reaction was excellent against Tanzania.
“Even though the opposition (Tanzania) was not as good, we played our game well, and we should continue like that during the remaining games,” said Houghton.
After two days’ rest, the Chevrons return to action this morning when they play Uganda.
Zimbabwe will then face Rwanda tomorrow. They wrap up their campaign at the United Grounds, where they are expected to play Nigeria and Kenya on November 29 and 30, respectively.
