HOSTS Zimbabwe Women Cricket team looks forward to picking the pieces and reviving their Super6 hopes with a win over the United States of America in their Group B second match of the ongoing Dream11 powered ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier at Takashinga Cricket Club in Highfield, Harare, Thursday morning.
The locals were so close to bagging their first win on their debut World Cup Qualifier but yet so far, after going down to Thailand by nine runs in the tournament opener played at Harare Sports Club on Sunday.
On the other hand, the USA team lost heavily against Group B log leaders Bangladesh 48 hours later on Tuesday at Sunrise Sports Club in Ridgeview, Belvedere.
Bangladesh are on the summit with four points following their wins against Pakistan and USA while Pakistan and Thailand are in second and third place respectively, tied on two points with only the net run rate separating them. Zimbabwe and USA are yet to get off the mark on zero points apiece.
Lady Chevrons’ captain Mary-Anne Musonda is not giving up hope of progressing beyond the group stage.
“In this tournament, we always have to be on point, and if you look at the way we started (against Thailand), we bowled loose balls, and they were able to capitalise, their opening partnership compared to us, we can probably say guys missed a boundary or two,” said Musonda on the defeat against Thailand.
“We were just looking at winning two games. We are not losing hope; we are left with three games (including the match against the USA) to play, so we are just hoping to make sure that the mistakes that we made on Sunday are not going to happen again going forward.”
Head coach Adam Chifo concurred with the skipper.
“Obviously not a good way to start the tournament. Losing your first game puts pressure on everybody,” said Chifo.
“It puts us under a lot of pressure, but anything is possible. We still have hope, and there is still a chance for us to reach the Super6.”
Zimbabwe will play against Pakistan on Saturday at Sunrise Sports Club before winding off their Group campaign with a date against Bangladesh at Old Hararians Sports Club on Monday.
