ZIMBABWE men’s cricket team are eager to follow in the footsteps of their female counterparts who picked gold at the African Games after seeing off Tanzania by four wickets in their second Group B encounter to sail through to the Thursday’s semi-finals with a game to spare in Accra, Ghana, yesterday.
The Lady Chevrons became the first cricket side to win gold at the African Games after the organisers of the continental showpiece decided to include cricket for the first time in the history of the games.
Zimbabwe women, powered by bowler Francisca Chipare, defended six runs off the final to force a tie and took the gold after winning the Super Over bowled by Chipare.
Yesterday, skipper Clive Madande’s mature innings of 42 not out from 39 balls carried the day for Zimbabwe as the Chevrons, chasing 87 for victory, recovered from a position of bother, 36/4 after 6.4 overs to reach 90/6 inside 16.3 overs.
The wicketkeeper batter, Madande featured in a 34-run partnership for the fifth wicket with Tony Munyonga who fell on 13 to leave Zimbabwe on 70/5 after 13.4 overs.
Jonathan Campbell, second top scorer in the 35-run win over Namibia on Sunday, was run out for 11, the team's third high scorer on a difficult batting day for Zimbabwe.
Earlier, the bowlers did all the damage after Tanzania elected to bat with spinner Wallace Mubayiwa adjudged player of the match taking three wickets for 12 runs in four overs.
The trio of Takudzwa Chataira, Tashinga Musekiwa and Trevor Gwandu picked two wickets each, while Munyonga took one.
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Tanzania had threatened to set a huge target, but the dismissal of their number three batsman Omary Kitunda for a 60-ball 43 pegged them back.
After Kitunda’s departure, only Ally Kimote and Sanjaykumar Thakor achieved double figures, 12 and 10, respectively batting at number nine and eight.
Brian Bennett top-scored with 65 against Namibia on Sunday, Campbell scored 39, Rodney Mupfudza weighed in with 32, while Owen Muzondo chipped in with a five-ball 15 runs as Zimbabwe totalled 197/6 in their opening match.
Head of The High Performance Programmme, Steve Mangongo, who is part of the delegation within the Elton Chigumbura-coached team in Accra, was visibly not happy with how the lads went about their batting yesterday.
“We bowled well, second half basic batting fundamentals were found wanting and temperament. Top order was disappointing apart from our captain Clive who was 43 not out,” Mangongo told NewsDay Sport.
“However, we are excited that we are marching on to the semis and that’s our immediate focus.”
He was, however, thrilled with the team’s batting display on the first match against Namibia.
“Good batting took the game away. As part of our key result areas that we keep improving all the time in our batting, we got to be consistent in our batting department as well,” he added.
“We are aware of the hard yards we need to do in terms of skills improvement. We got to keep focused and committed to tougher training regime.
“Young Mupfudza set the tempo with the bat upfront. This is a good sign. Bennett, Campbell and Muzondo who is fast developing into a genuine all-rounder all took the game away with the bat.”
Zimbabwe’s final Group B match is against Nigeria tomorrow.
