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Brandon Moyo, [email protected]

A FEW days ago, Zimbabwe Cricket senior men’s head coach Dave Houghton described their loss against Namibia in the International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier as his worst-ever game with Zimbabwe but he had no clue that they would sink to an all time low at the same tournament.

Words cannot begin to describe what the Chevrons did after succumbing to a five wickets defeat at the hands of minnows Uganda at the United Cricket Ground in Windhoek, Namibia yesterday.

Zimbabwe Cricket has reached an all time low.

It is embarrassing, disturbing, uninspiring and a shame to lose a cricket game against a team like Uganda.

The Chevrons have committed suicide in probably what is the worst-ever day in the history of the game in the country.

They have betrayed the nation, broken millions of hearts of fans, who despite thick and thin have been loyal to them.

Who would have thought that we would live to see the day when a minnow like Uganda would beat a Test playing nation. They were woeful in every sense of the word, it was terrible and a sad day for cricket in the country.

What happened to pride and playing for the badge?

In what appeared like an easy route to next year’s T20 World Cup, the odds have now changed, the Chevrons find themselves struggling against small teams, teams that they should be walloping.

After they were sent in to bat first, the Chevrons were restricted to a paltry 136/7 in 20 overs and poor captaincy and decision making from Sikandar Raza saw Uganda chase down the target in 19,1 overs to finish on 138/5.

Losing early wickets at the top continued yesterday as Tadiwanashe Marumani was run out without even facing a single delivery, an unnecessary wicket in the first ball of the match to leave the team on 1/0.

Raza, in the middle order, went on to be the Chevrons’ top scorer with 48 runs from 39 balls while opener, Innocent Kaia made 23 runs after facing as many deliveries.

Veteran, Sean Williams scored 21 runs off 24 balls while the only other batter that also managed to cross double figures for Zimbabwe was Ryan Burl with 13.

Dinesh Nakrani finished with figures of 3/14 in his four over spell for Uganda while Henry Ssenyondo claimed two scalps for 25 runs in three overs.

Defending their below par score, Raza failed to make good decisions in the middle as Ugandan batters made light work of the most experienced Zimbabwean bowlers.

For a bowler of Tendai Chatara’s calibre to have an economy rate of 10,75 against Uganda in a T20 match is the definition of unacceptable and for a captain like Raza, to make him bowl his four overs while he was the most expensive is unexplainable.

Raza made Chatara bowl out his overs while Wellington Masakadza only bowled two overs despite being the most economical of the bowlers. In two overs, Masakadza only conceded seven runs while in four, Chatara gave away 43 runs with no wicket.

Williams, also did not finish his overs despite having a good economy.

Richard Ngarava finished with figures of 2/24 in his four overs while Williams took one wicket for 14 runs in two overs. The other two wickets that fell were run outs. Riazat Ali Shah top scored for Uganda with 42 runs from 28 balls while Alpesh Ramjani made 40 runs from 26 deliveries.

With their second defeat, Zimbabwe’s chances of qualification are now hanging by a thread as they find themselves with two points from a possible six while Kenya and Namibia are cruising on six points having won all their three matches.

Only two teams from the tournament will qualify for the T20 World Cup which will be co-hosted by the West Indies and the United States of America (USA). —@brandon_malvin