ZIMBABWE begin their ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier mindful of a potential banana skin against little known South Pacific Ocean side Vanuatu at the Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE) today.
At least 10 teams are vying for the remaining two slots for the ICC Women's T20 World Cup scheduled for Bangladesh later in the year. The Lady Chevrons are in Group B that also contains Ireland, Netherlands and UAE.
Opening batsmen Sharne Mayers believes the fact that Vanuatu made it this far is good reason to take them seriously in this night match, or risk an upset.
“With Vanuatu I do remember being in their position many years ago and it's all about going through our processes and just take it as it comes,” said Mayers.
“We need to be very tactically aware. Watch, observe and see what's going on and plan as best as we can. That's how we plan to go about it. At the end of the day, every single team here has worked hard to get here, so we can't underestimate anyone. We have to take each game like a final because at the end of the day everybody is vying for the World Cup spot.”
The Lady Chevrons, fresh from winning a gold medal at the African Games in Accra Ghana won their opening warm up encounter against USA before going down to Scotland by 32 runs on Sunday. Mayers scored an unbeaten century albeit in defeat.
She said they are not going too far ahead of themselves in their quest to make it to Bangladesh, but taking it one game at a time.
“Our goal is to qualify. I mean that is the overall goal but at the end of the day it's just one game at a time. Our first game is against Vanuatu and that's the big focus.
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“We don't want to go too far ahead of ourselves and worry about things that we have no control over. So, just go through the processes and it's Vanuatu on the 25th and that's our big focus,” she added.
They take on United Arab Emirates in another night match at Tolerance Oval on Saturday before Ireland on Monday, and wind off their group stage match against Netherlands on May Day, a day match.
