BY MAGRETH RUZVIDZO
Zimbabwe National Women’s cricket team coach Adam Chifo picked up some positives from their whitewash defeat to South Africa’s emerging side that toured Bulawayo between May 18 and 26.
Chifo said despite his team’s failing to win a single match in the five match 50-over series, he was pleased that the players managed to get back to action in that format.
“It’s not the result we would have wanted but nonetheless I think there are lots of positives from the tournament. Looking also at the fact that the girls were playing at 50-over cricket for the first time, they were used to playing T20 in the past, so getting into 50-over cricket is a bit of a challenge. It is both physically and mentally demanding,” said Chifo.
“It was a very big eye opener for the ladies, it was not a good result in terms of losing all the matches, but it had lots of positives.”
“One of the biggest things is that we managed to show that we can bat 50-overs which is a good start, so going forward we are able to look at how best we can score and rotate strikers,” he added.
Chifo also commended the bowlers but said that they still need to work on consistency.
“There was just a bit of inconsistence here and there, but otherwise it was an eye opener. Now we need to focus on our consistency and probably more in terms of grouping,” he said.
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He also noted that the ladies got tired after 30-35 overs due to lack of fitness and endurance.
The team is set to take a two-week break and back to training afterwards.
The team was using these matches against South Africa as part of their preparations for the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier 2021 scheduled for December in Sri Lanka.
The top three teams from that 10-team qualifying event will progress to the 50-over ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022 in New Zealand.
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