ASHLEY DUBE
The Zimbabwe men's cricket team finished with two wins out of five in the inaugural Africa Cup T20 series. The Chevrons managed to beat hosts Namibia twice in as many matches but lost all three matches to neighbours South Africa. While this was expected given the Proteas' standing in the game, Zimbabwe's manner of defeat against South Africa was concerning, as they showed little to no fight across the matches. Namibia, by comparison, made a better account of themselves against the same opponents. Namibia's only win came against South Africa.
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| Image: Zimbabwe Cricket |
Batting still remains a concern for the Chevrons, particularly in the T20 format. It has to be noted that during their brilliant World Cup run, where Zimbabwe managed to qualify for the Super 8, the bulk of the runs came from the bats of Brian Bennett and Sikandar Raza.
Their form has nosedived ever since, and the batting has suffered with no significant contributions from the others.
Ben Curran was brought in to shore up the top order. He showed some promise with starts in the first two games, but his form wilted as the series went on, finishing with an average of 14.2. Innocent Kaia also joined the T20 side and was brilliant with his 42-ball 76, his career-best T20I score, but struggled in the other matches.
The team seemed to have adopted a new approach of going aggressively early in their innings, perhaps answering the captain's call for Zimbabwe to target the high scores common in modern T20 cricket.
The strategy seemed to backfire, with Zimbabwe suffering top-order collapses, particularly against South Africa, as they tried to go for the big shots. They found themselves in all sorts of trouble, losing four wickets in the powerplay in two matches against South Africa. In the final, they were 25-4 after 3.3 overs, not an ideal start while chasing 206 to win. Zimbabwe's lack of natural big hitters is a concern in the shortest format.
The Chevrons were the only team that failed to pass the 200 mark throughout the series. Their highest score of 195-6 came after a solid seventh-wicket stand between Ryan Burl and Brad Evans.
On the upside, Brad Evans has been a revelation this year (batting-wise), with consistent performances. He has added two half-centuries against Bangladesh in the just-ended ODI series, along with his maiden T20I fifty. He finished the series with the highest batting average among Zimbabwe batsmen, with 49 from four innings.
In addition, he topped the bowling charts in the series with 10 wickets, a testament to his great form.
The Chevrons also look weak in the spin department, with Cremer and Wellington Masakadza not performing up to par. With the absence of Ngarava due to injury, Zimbabwe turned to Newman Nyamhuri and Kundai Matigimu. Newman looks brilliant in flashes and tends to be erratic at times, which resulted in a higher economy rate. Matigimu held his own in the two matches but was a tad expensive as well in his debut T20 series.
Up next for the Chevrons is a three-match One Day International (ODI) series against Australia at Harare Sports Club.
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