Zimpapers Logo

Blessing Malinganiza Sports Reporter

ZIMBABWE’S Lady Chevrons coach Walter Chawaguta and his cricket charges are in a race against time to fix the team’s batting and fielding problems ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup Global qualifiers.

The ICC Women’s T20 World Cup qualification tournament roars into life in the United Arab Emirates this Thursday.

The Lady Chevrons begin their battle for one of the two World Cup slots with a date against Vanuatu on the opening day.

After watching his side beat the USA by six wickets in a warm-up match on Sunday, Lady Chevrons coach Chawaguta expressed his worry over the team’s batting and fielding department.

“I am happy with where we are as a team but we have got some issues to work on.

“We have been talking to the players about self-expression when they bat and it is good to see that it is starting to register but we are not quite where we want to be.

“We also still have issues to sort out with our fielding,” he said.

Zimbabwe play their last warm-up match today against Scotland.

Chawaguta, who was part of the technical team that missed out on qualification for the last edition of the T20 World Cup with a four-run defeat against Ireland in a semi-final clash at the same tournament two years ago, is not worried about the last edition despite the memories coming back to haunt him.

“It is something that you cannot avoid, you are always going to have that at the back of your mind but that is one thing that I have not been talking about with the players.

“It is something I think about as a coach but it is not something worth speaking as a team,” he said.

Instead, the Lady Chevrons coach is looking ahead at the upcoming tournament and will be taking each game as it comes with their main target for now being to reach the semi-finals.

“Past is past, we made our mistakes players, we can learn from that once we start the tournament and we want to make sure we won’t drop a match.

“Our main target is to be first in our group and get ourselves in the semi-finals and worry about what comes after that,” said Chawaguta.

He added that the team had remained high in spirit despite floods hitting the host country upon their arrival early last week.

“We missed the first day and the second day (of training) . . . we would have wanted to have a net session, unfortunately the conditions did not allow that but we still had a good fielding session and I can’t say we missed much,” said the Lady Chevrons coach.