Zimpapers Sports
THE Lady Chevrons’ preparations for the 2024 ICC T20 World Cup final qualifies received a major boost following the successful return from injury by top order batter, Chipo Mugeri-Tiripano during the recent white-ball series against Papua New Guinea.
Zimbabwe won the One Day international series with a 3-0 whitewash and then clinched the T20I series 2-1, with a convincing 32-run victory under floodlights at Harare Sports Club on Tuesday.
She missed the opening T20Is.
It left Mary Anne Musonda and Modester Mupachikwa to do all the batting for the Lady Chevrons and she then scored a match-winning 66 off 59 balls as the Lady Chevrons posted 136/6 after being put in to bat in the series finale.
In the ODI series, Mugeri-Tiripano made history by becoming the first Zimbabwean woman to score back-to-back fifties, making 71 off 105 in the opening match before retiring hurt and then 52 off 60 in the third and final game.
Competition at the final qualifiers will be tougher and runs will be crucial if the Lady Chevrons are to win matches.
The availability of the senior players, including Mugeri-Tiripano, Musonda and Mupachikwa will be very crucial for coach Walter Chawaguta.
“Our focus is on batting, which we need to work on especially when we are chasing.
“When we are chasing, our mindset is quite different to when we are setting.
“If you look at our game against Kenya, when we won the toss and decided to bat first, we had a partnership of about 80 in the first 10 overs, which is something that we have been talking about to our players.
“We want them to go and express themselves,” said Chawaguta.
He added:
“We need a mindset change because we seem to be a bit reserved when we are chasing.
“And, that is something that we are working on to make sure that the mindset does not change weather we are batting first or we are chasing,” said Chawaguta.
Zimbabwe will battle it out with nine other countries for the two remaining slots at the ICC T20 2024 World Cup to be hosted by Bangladesh.
The Lady Chevrons were grouped in Group B together with Ireland, Vanuatu, UAE and Netherlands.