Chevrons hope to end bad streak

AFTER suffering two humiliating defeats in their Cricket World Cup pool, Zimbabwe will be looking forward to end the losing streak when they take on Pakistan on Sunday.Even more importantly, a win against Pakistan — a side that does not possess the firepower of West Indies, South Africa or India — will give the Chevrons the boost they now need after a mixed start to the tournament.
Zimbabwe will then close their Pool B campaign with games against Ireland and India.

The Chevrons lost their opener against South Africa but picked themselves up with a win over United Arab Emirates (UAE).
However, in their third match they suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of West Indies.
Tuesday’s defeat was sparked by West Indies’ most destructive opener, Chris Gayle who fired a record-breaking double -hundred.
This was the fifth double-century in one day internationals (ODIs) and it came exactly five years after former Indian batsman, Sanchin Tendulkar, first reached the landmark.
With four teams from each of the two groups of seven qualifying for the quarter finals, captain Elton Chigumbura  was  still optimistic Zimbabwe could still make it into the knockout phase of this World Cup despite the two defeats suffered so far.

He, however, implored his teammates to play like cornered tigers in their next three games.
If Zimbabwe beat Pakistan they will be in a good position to make the quarter finals.
“We still have three more games to play and obviously we are going to take them one at a time,” said Chigumbura.
“Hopefully we can keep the form we have with the bat but if we can work hard on our bowling and give fewer runs than we have given so far we have a good chance of getting positive results and go through to the quarter finals,” he said.
New coach, Dave Whatmore, an experienced coach who won the World Cup with Sri Lanka in 1986, has  assembled a pretty solid batting line up on paper, with quality in the middle order and a couple of good finishers lower down.
But the team has not been delivering normal defeats.

While batsmen stood out against both South Africa and UAE, the bowling has cost Zimbabwe, particularly in the death overs.
Zimbabwe bowlers conceded 146 runs in the last 10 overs against South Africa, 81 against UAE and 152 against West Indies.
Given the fact that Whatmore has been around for a long time, the Chevrons can still make it to the quarter finals but they have to find a way of limiting damages in the final overs.
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