THE beauty about tournaments is that you can perform poorly and still get away with murder at times.
What usually counts are the points. This is precisely what hosts, Zimbabwe Women cricket team are banking on after digging deep until the final wicket to edge the spirited United States of America in a thrilling encounter at Takashinga Cricket Club on Thursday.
The Lady Chevrons snatched victory from the Jaws of defeat as the locals held on to a one-wicket win over the USA team to keep their hopes of a Super6 berth alive.
Top-order batters Modester Mupachikwa, Sharne Mayers, and Josephine set the tone with double-digit scores.
However, the momentum was lost in the middle order with a couple of ducks before tailenders Precious Marange and Francisca Chipare wrestled the match in Zimbabwe’s favour.
Now there is no room for error if Zimbabwe still entertain hopes of going beyond the group stage.
The Lady Chevrons are not far from the summit and occupy position three in Group B. Bangladesh leads Group B standings on four points from three matches.
Bangladesh lost to Thailand on Thursday, who are in second place tied on four points with the log leaders. Only an inferior net run rate separates the net run rate between the two. Both Bangladesh and Thailand have played three matches each.
The Zimbabwe women cricket team in third place was tied on two points, with Pakistan having played two matches each. USA anchor Group B standings on zero points. The hosts square off against Pakistan at Sunrise Sports in Ridgeview, Belvedere in Harare on Saturday.
Before the tournament, Pakistan were favourites to win, but their loss to Bangladesh and being bowled out by Thailand gave Zimbabwe hope of another upset.
Pakistan are unpredictable, and their batting has not clicked so far in the tournament, and if Zimbabwe can exploit that weakness, they may have a shouting chance.
Ironically batting has also been the tournament host’s Achilles heels.
Lady Chevrons head coach Adam Chifo underpins the USA near debacle as one performance the team need to forget about in a huff.
“We are obviously happy that we collected the much-needed points to keep us in the run for the Super 6 despite the points coming through a nerve-wracking encounter,” he said.
“A lot to ponder about with regards to all departments as we face probably the most experienced teams in our next two encounters.”
But facts and statistics do not lie; Chifo is hopeful the team can turn the tables around.
“From the log standings, we still much in the run, and we are probably in a better position than the other two teams as we still have two matches in the bag, but it will all boil down to how much effort we put on the day,” he said.
“Thailand just beat Bangladesh, and it shows that anything is possible in this tournament. We just have to believe in ourselves and turn up on the day.”
