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THE Zimbabwe cricket team will play in the final of the One-Day International triangular tournament against Sri Lanka at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo tomorrow in a remarkable turnaround of fortunes for our Chevrons. Having started the tournament by slumping to an all-too-familiar defeat at the hands of Sri Lanka, at Harare Sports Club last week, the Chevrons have shown signs of resurgence and that they didn’t lose a match against the power hitters of the West Indies is very encouraging.

The Windies might not be the force that dominated the Test arena in the world in the ‘80s but, as they have shown now and again, when it comes to the shorter version of this sport, the ODIs and Twenty20s, they are a formidable outfit and their recent World Cup success story illustrates that point.

Therefore, for our team, which is undergoing a rebuilding exercise under new coach Heath Streak, to beat the men from the Caribbean in the rain-affected match yesterday, courtesy of the Duckworth/Lewis Method, and qualify for the final of the triangular tournament, is a huge step in the right direction.

Some critics will suggest that had the rain not intervened, the Windies might have chased down our total, but we don’t buy that argument and the fact that the Calypso Kings were already five down, in terms of wickets, having lost virtually all of their best batsmen with only 124 on the board in pursuit of the 219 they needed for victory, makes a mockery of that argument.

The fact is that the Duckworth/Lewis Method, which is tailored to decide a match in the event of disruption by rain, shows that the Windies’ tally, in terms of runs scored and wickets lost, was five runs short of what Zimbabwe had scored when the Chevrons batted in their innings.

These are the rules of the game and the onus was on the Windies to score more, or lose less wickets, because there was always the possibility this match could be affected by the weather conditions and that they didn’t is a credit to the Zimbabweans who made it difficult for them.

After all, this was the same Windies team that piled more than 300 runs in their last match against Sri Lanka and to reduce them to 124-5, in their chase, was a spirited effort by the Chevrons and rather than being mocked, as some quarters will always do when it comes to anything related to us, Streak and his men need to be commended for the way they fought with the ball.

The coach was unhappy when his men tied the previous game with the Windies, arguing they should have scored more runs and it’s refreshing that we now have a coach who is challenging his team to do better, to scale dizzy heights and to believe they are not in this game just to make up the numbers but to compete and win matches for their country.

Streak was always a winner, when he was a player, and records will show that he was the most successful Test captain that we ever had, with our team enjoying its best spell under him, and he has brought that winning mentality into his coaching manual and for the Chevrons, just to make the final of a tournament, is something very, very positive.

He inherited a team that was horribly short on confidence, with losing having becoming part of its DNA, which was being abandoned by its fans and which was low on morale as the defeats piled up.

But he is slowly changing all that, gradually transforming it, and while these are still early days and bigger challenges will come, the signs are encouraging.

The good thing about hiring a coach like Streak, whom we backed to take the job, is that he knows the team very well, having played for it and captained it, and he also knows the players very well and what is needed to turn them into a competitive force.

He is also working under a selectors’ chief, Tatenda Taibu, who also knows the system very well and has also been challenging the players that they can turn things around, refusing to accept mediocrity and telling the world that they are likely to see a very competitive Zimbabwe cricket team from now onwards.

We yearn for the return of the good times in our cricket because, of all our sporting disciplines, this is one code that plays its games on the big stage all the time, competing in World Cups, and when they do very well, they give a very good image of our country and we are happy to be seeing the changes which suggest we could be back on the road to recovery.

Now that we are in the final, hopefully we can now win it, although we know we are playing a Sri Lanka side that has always been our bogey side.

The triangular tournament has been a big success and we salute Zimbabwe Cricket for the way they handled this high-profile tourney and showed the world that we are a country that is functioning and our hospitality knows no boun- daries.