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Eddie Chikamhi Senior Sports Reporter

THE Zimbabwe men’s cricket team have endured a run of depressing results in the last month culminating in the rather poor and embarrassing statistic after they became the first Full Member to lose a series to rising Associate and Southern African neighbours, Namibia, this week.

The Chevrons’ current woes showed when the team crumbled on their own turf in a small chase in the series decider at Queens Sports Club.

The match ended in a 32-run upset and the determined Namibians wrote their own piece of history after securing the series 3-2, with the victory.

This was a new low for Zimbabwean cricket, especially with the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier 2022, which they are supposed to host in July, just around the corner.

The Chevrons players and technical teams will need to embark on a thorough introspection ahead of the qualifying tournament. They need to determine what exactly is the problem. Do they have the right personnel? Are they employing the right strategies?

Fortunately, they host Afghanistan in the next few weeks and will play three ODIs and as many T20Is in Harare.

This could present a chance to work around their game because the big deal among all the cricket enthusiasts and the cricket authorities alike is to see the Chevrons qualify for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup which is set to take place in Australia later this year.

Zimbabwe missed the last edition of the tournament because of temporary ICC suspension. They have not competed at a T20 World Cup since 2016.

However, they have pinned their hopes in the coming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier B, which is one of two global tournaments that together form the final stage of the qualification process for the T20 World Cup 2022.

Unlike Zimbabwe, Namibia have already secured automatic qualification on the back of their fine performances at the last tournament.

As things stand, the Chevrons still have a long way to go.

They were bundled out for 95 runs in 19.1 overs by Namibia, chasing a winning target of 128, on Tuesday. This was their third lowest T20I score.

Zimbabwe’s batting has been one of their biggest weaknesses during the series. Apart from flashes from Wesley Madhevere and Craig Ervine, most of the Zimbabwean batters struggled against the visitors.

The series came on the back of the unsuccessful tour of Zimbabwe ‘A’ to Nepal and the poor showing by the Zimbabwe XI side that hosted South Africa A concurrently earlier this month.

The Zimbabwe XI lost both the one day and T20 series to their South African counterparts at Harare Sports Club while the Zimbabwe ‘A’ team drew the T20 series against Nepal before going down 1-2 in the one-dayers.

About seven players who were with the Zimbabwe ‘A’ team in Nepal made it into the team that faced Namibia. These included Tony Munyonga, Tadiwanashe Marumani, Luke Jongwe, Brandon Mavuta, Innocent Kaia, Victor Nyauchi and debutant Bradley Evans.

The team also had seasoned campaigners like Sikandar Raza, Regis Chakabva, Tendai Chatara and limited overs skipper Craig Ervine. Wellington Masakadza and Richard Ngarava missed out through injury, while Blessing Muzarabani had commitments at the Indian Premier League.

Madhevere finished the series with the most runs after scoring 173 in five innings. He was followed by Namibian players Craig Williams (139), Gerhard Erasmus (123), Divan la Cock (89) and Zimbabwe skipper Ervine (88) completed the top five.

Namibia’s Bernard Scholtz had the most wickets after claiming seven scalps in five outings.

The just-ended series against Namibia could also have some repercussions on the team and individual global rankings. Zimbabwe dropped one place into 12th in the ICC T20I rankings released on Tuesday while Namibia moved one place up to 15th.

To show they have been making progress, Namibian players are now commanding better individual rankings than their Zimbabwean counterparts in T20Is.

The quartet of Gerhard Erasmus (50), Williams (67), JJ Smit (69) and Stephan Baard (75) are now ranked above Zimbabwe’s top ranked T20I batsmen Ervine (88) and Madhevere (90).