ZIMBABWE Senior Women’s cricket coach Adam Chifo has hailed the history-making charges who opened their One Day International (ODI) account with a historic four-wicket win over the visiting Ireland Women at Harare Sports Club on Tuesday.
The victory was built around a good bowling performance which left Ireland 20-30 runs short of a par total and a brilliant unbeaten 103 runs by captain Mary-Anne Musonda.
In a game of fine margins, Ireland started the match as favourites by virtue of being ranked higher than the Lady Chevrons and having more ODI experience than their opponents.
Fresh from retaining the Africa Cup in Botswana a couple of weeks ago, Zimbabwe showed that they are a dangerous side in their own conditions.
It was an emotional day for all who have coached the Lady Chevrons before, from Emmanuel, Alistair Zowe, Leonard Nhamburo, Trevor Phiri and now Chifo.
The talk before the historic match was that the ladies had already achieved by playing in their maiden ODI match; a win was a bonus.
But the ladies were “greedy”. They wanted it all to themselves-the ODI cap and the victory to mark the momentous occasion. None more than the captain Musonda who had made international debut almost a decade and a half ago when Women’s cricket in Zimbabwe was still in amateur ranks.
This is the day that the pioneers of women’s cricket in Zimbabwe had hoped would come, but the journey had been bumpy at times, leaving people like Musonda to carry on with the struggle as giving up was never an option.
Victory took away the pain and made the almost two-decade journey shorter than it was.
Chifo, who was pacing up and down at the boundary rope barking instructions at his team when his team was fielding, was delighted to see his charges mark the historic day with a victory.
“It is a historic moment for the ladies and women cricket in Zimbabwe indeed. Every team dreams of such a start to any journey. The ladies really did the nation proud,” he tells EnterSportNews.
The Zimbabwe coach hailed his captain, who led from the front.
“Special mention goes to Mary-Anne for her maiden unbeaten 100. It wouldn’t have come at a better moment. The ladies really bowled well early on in their innings, and even as Ireland scored freely after 33 overs, our bowlers showed composure and stood up to the task.”
Chifo said the wicket offered no assistance to the bowlers; hence the belief to chase down the target was always there.
“250 was a decent score to chase as the wicket gave little or no assistance at all to the bowlers, so all we needed to do was bat deep into the innings, and we did that well with a positive run rate of plus 5,” he said.
“Good knock also from Ashley Ndiraya, Josephine Nkomo and Precious Marange. Ideally, we would have loved them to convert once they got a good start, but it’s something we can work on as the series progresses.”
