WICKETKEEPER-BATTER Modester Mupachikwa is set to limp out of injury and join the Zimbabwe Senior Women’s Cricket Team in today’s final of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Africa Region Qualifier against Namibia at the Gaborone Oval in Botswana.
The 24-year-old’s absence, together with Chipo Mugeri-Tiripano, was felt in the final Group A match against Rwanda and more so in the 14-run semifinal win against Uganda on Friday and her return comes as a significant boost for the defending champions.
On the other Namibia edged Tanzania by two wickets with two balls to spare in the second semifinal.
Mupachikwa retired hurt after she pulled a hamstring. At the same time, Mugeri-Tiripano and Christabel Chatonzwa were sent back after suffering multiple fracture injury to her lift foot together with Christabel Chatonzwa, who sustained a right calf strain.
“Obviously, we were a little bit under pressure when we didn’t make use of the power play, but we have so much depth in our batting all we needed was one of us to come to the party, and Precious Marange did that with ease and brought us back in the game,” Chifo said of the semifinal win against Uganda.
“With our bowling attack, all we needed was 100 runs on the board, and once we went past, we knew we have enough arsenal in our bowling to defend.”
The team had an optional day today in preparation for the final, which is a repeat of 2019 final in Harare in which the Lady Chevrons came out victorious.
“We will continue to be positive and stick to our processes. Today was optional training; otherwise, the rest of the girls are resting all day. We had practice with the new players that came in to replace the injured ones,” he added.
“Mode (Mupachikwa) is looking good, and the chances are that she’ll be ok tomorrow but will make the final call at warm-up. It’s pretty much the same for us, and I think we are now a better team than we were that time, so we should be able to handle them well.”
