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Blessing Malinganiza Sports Reporter

Lady Chevrons all-rounder Precious Marange is confident of the senior women’s team progressing to next year’s T20 World Cup.

Marange challenged senior Lady Chevrons players to play a pivotal role in helping the team qualify for T20 World Cup global qualifiers when they battle it out with eight other African countries in the regional qualifiers set for next week in Uganda.

“As senior players we have to lead from the front and make sure that our experience counts in the qualifiers.

“Experience is very important because when the situation gets difficult, the senior players understand what needs to be done.

“As one of the senior players within the team I believe that our experience is important because we have a bigger role to play in all departments and carry the team home and going into these qualifiers we need to be at our best and lead the youngsters,” said Marange.

The Lady Chevrons will battle it out with Botswana, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania and event hosts Uganda for two slots at the final, global qualification tournament, the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier 2024.

With Zimbabwe being the only full member nation at the upcoming qualifiers which begin next week, Marange said they will not be allowing complacency in the camp as cricket was rapidly developing on the continent.

“As it stands now no team is small in the qualifiers so we treat each and every game as it comes and no one is bigger than the game.

“As a team we are not underrating any team in the qualifiers and we all need to do to avoid a heartbreak is to remain focused,” said Marange.

Marange believes the recent series against South Africa Emerging side had come at the right time as it allowed the Lady Chevrons to work on their weaknesses. “We lost the series but at least we managed to see where we are as a team and what we need to work on as we head into the qualifiers.

“And some of the lessons is that our seam bowlers were struggling the whole series and also catches win matches so these are some of the things we need to work on going into the qualifiers,” said Marange.

Marange, who recently turned 41 and still going strong, has described her prolonged stay on the field as an honour and privilege.

She will hope to mentor upcoming cricketers and fill up the shoes that will be left by the senior players.

“It’s an honour for me to represent my country at this stage, not so many are privileged and I always thank God for the opportunity.

“Having the young players in the —team seeing young player allows them to develop and improve their talent and it creates a solid base for the future that’s how important it is to have blended team,” said Marange.