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Eddie Chikamhi Senior Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE cricket team captain Graeme Cremer is confident the Chevrons will pick themselves up and level the series against bogey side Afghanistan at the Harare Sports Club tomorrow.

The home side counted themselves unfortunate after going down in the first game by 12 runs through the Duckworth/Lewis method after rains forced the match to be abandoned prematurely on Thursday.

However, the leg spinner believes the defeat could have been avoided had they done the basics right in the run chase following a lethargic top order batting when set a modest target of 207 runs.

But with the weather forecast predicting a 90 percent chance of precipitation tomorrow, Cremer and his teammates should have had their lesson. They will keep their fingers crossed that the match will, at least, be able to take place and force a result.

Zimbabwe desperately need to redeem themselves to avoid the embarrassment of having to continuously play second fiddle to the Associate Member.

Cremer is cognisant of the challenge on their hands but he remains confident.

“(We are) not so much under pressure because we know we haven’t played our best cricket, we know we are better than that.

“It could have been nice to win the first one because they are a sort of team that when they are up in a series they gain momentum quite quickly but we are still confident we can win on Sunday and carry on with the rest of the series,” said Cremer.

The Chevrons are not likely to ring many changes to their team but they are keen to have middle order batsman Elton Chigumbura back in the starting line-up.

The pinch hitter was overlooked because of lack of fitness.

His experience remains crucial especially considering that the other veterans of the team Hamilton Masakadza and Sean Williams were dropped from the team after failing fitness tests.

The duo are continuously being monitored, though.

Still the selectors have put in place a competitive squad that is a fusion of youth and experience.

Former national Under-19 batsman Ryan Burl and fast bowler Richard Ngarava gave promising accounts of themselves when handed debut ODI caps and are likely to be retained tomorrow.

Cremer said they need to improve their batting with the challenge going to the likes of Solomon Mire, PJ Moor, Tarisai Musakanda, Craig Ervine and Malcom Waller to turn up on the day.

“We have got a team that can beat them. I’m sure we were more than capable (in the first ODI) with the ball and we just needed to click with the bat. Once we do that we should just have to run over them.

“We just need our batting order to click. We have spoken about it and we will speak more about it but then it’s about applying ourselves up there a bit better,” said Cremer.

Afghanistan not only picked seized the momentum going into the series but they also stretched their head to head record against Zimbabwe to 9-6.

The visitors coach Lalchand Rajput believes pressure is on the hosts to catch-up in this series.

Rajput, a former Indian cricketer, sounded upbeat after winning the opener but has refused to get carried away. “We will not be all too happy that we won the first game. It’s a series and in a series we just have to take it one game at a time.

“It’s important we won the first time so that we gain momentum into the next matches,” said Rajput.