http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755
Zimbabwe skipper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Elton-Chigumbura-c55937 has repeatedly called on his top order batsmen to start showing better performances, stressing that they should work on not letting any wickets falls before the 15th over. The pressure to
do better was on against their match with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 in the group stage of the ICC World Cup, and they certainly delivered.
Zimbabwe dropped Charles Coventry and Regis Chakabva was promoted to open the inning with Brendan Taylor. In the 19th over both openers started to spank the Sri Lanka bowlers and distressed them for a short time.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Taylor-c92915 played tremendously and played strokes at his own will with full authority and looked like a more composed batsman than the two centurions of the day Dilshan and Tharanga. Chakabva gave him full support and occupied the other
end with an odd boundary every now and then.
However, after the first wicket fell, the remaining batsmen crumbled in succession; Zimbabwe lost all their wickets in just 19 overs, 139 runs short of the target set by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758.
Commenting on the batting performance, Chigumbura said:
"Though we were all out we were going for the score. If you wanted to play for a better score or better defeat we could've lasted 50 overs. But we were all positive going for it, so it's something we have to improve on where we went
wrong today."
Zimbabwe are not ruled out from the race for a place in the knock-out round yet. They still face Kenya and Pakistan in the Group matches. While they are in for a good chance against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Kenya-c752, they will have to hope for an upset in their
encounter against the Men in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Green-c60723.
The matches, nonetheless, will be a precious experience for a team who is aiming to regain their test status. Today’s match was Zimbabwe’s first One Day International (ODI) to be played in Sri Lanka since September 2002.
Chigumbura says his team is preparing to go guns blazing against their encounter against Pakistan.
“Playing in these conditions your line has to be different from other continents and the way you have to bat, more straight than across. We've learnt that, but we have to apply all those things we have learnt and put it together for a good game against Pakistan,”
he said.
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