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Brandon Moyo, Sports Reporter

ZIMBABWE’S poor performance at the ongoing inaugural International Cricket Council (ICC) Women’s T20 World Cup in South Africa has been blamed on lack of experience and exposure.

The Young Lady Chevrons’ head coach Trevor Phiri says the poor outing at the global showpiece was due to lack of experience as his team was affected by stage fright.

“We lacked experience and exposure so girls might have been affected by stage fright especially when facing big teams like England whom we played against in our first match,” said Phiri.

Kelis Ndhlovu

In their first match of the campaign against England, the Young Lady Chevrons got off to a bad start, suffering a heavy 174 runs. After losing the toss and being sent in to bowl first, the Zimbabwean side could not contain the England batters who helped themselves to 199-4 in 20 overs before the Kelis Ndhlovu captained Zimbabweans were wiped out for just 25 runs in their chase. It took England 12 overs to bowl them out.

The defeat was followed by a disappointing 39 runs defeat at the hands of Rwanda before going on to suffer another heavy defeat in their last group match against Pakistan, losing by 10 wickets to make it three straight defeats.

Phiri however said despite the dismal performance, there were some positives to take away from the tournament from both the batters and bowlers as some managed to score runs while others took wickets. Skipper Ndhlovu managed to score 42 runs against Pakistan while against Rwanda, Chipo Moyo took three wickets.

Phiri said the experience and exposure to different standards they got in South Africa will come in handy going forward.
The World Cup was not the end of the road for the Young Lady Chevrons whom Phiri said have matches lined up as Zimbabwe Cricket are trying to have them attached to different clubs.

He also added that they are trying to revive schools cricket league which will also help in the development of players.
Zimbabwe also lost their play-off match against Indonesia by three wickets. – @brandon_malvin