National cricket team captain Brendan Taylor believes his teams Sunday triumph in the Pran RFL Triangular Series will serve them well ahead of the ICC World Twenty20 tournament in Sri Lanka in September.
Taylor, who was named the match of the match after scoring an unbeaten half century in the nine-wicket thumping of South Africa in the series final on Sunday, said: We have beaten a very good team and it should give us a lot of confidence leading up to the World Twenty20 tournament.
We are not focusing much on the fact that they didnt have some of their star players South Africa has a lot of depth and so many good players to choose from and fielded a very strong side in this series and we can draw a lot of confidence from that which can stand us in good stead.
There will be a lot of training for the matches against South African and Sri Lankan A sides, which will be good preparation and hopefully we will have the good facilities to train as we have been having so that we prepare well for the World Twenty20.
The 26-year-old right-handed batsman said his team had shown a lot of character by bouncing back from two consecutive defeats to win the final.
We started very well with two wins but we fell away a bit with defeats in a row, but it takes tremendous character to come back from two losses and to perform the way we did today was outstanding, he said.
The Proteas batsmen struggled for the most part in Harare, scoring just three half-centuries throughout the series in conditions that did not seem to suit them, but which will most likely be the same as they will face at the Twenty20 World Cup.
In contrast, national team opener Hamilton Masakadza was by some distance the best player in the tournament, smashing four half-centuries in 267 runs at an average of 66.75 while Taylor scored 163 runs at an average of 40.75.
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In the bowling department, lanky seam bowler Christopher Mpofu was the highest wicket taker with seven wickets in five matches at an average of 16.14 to his name.
According to Cricinfo, Richard Muzhange was the find of the tournament. He bowled with control and executed the yorker with perfection, especially at the death of an innings.
Jason Gillespie, who coached Muzhange at the Mid-West Rhinos last season, identified him as a future star and Butcher could not be more pleased with what they have found. He is definitely one for the future.
He showed great composure and that he is willing to learn, Butcher told Cricinfo. The players are growing in confidence and self-belief. Hopefully, we will take that with us into the World T20.
