Fragile batting let Zimbabwe down: Houghton
ADELAIDE. — After being “outplayed” by the Netherlands in Adelaide yesterday, Zimbabwe cricket team head coach Dave Houghton said his players got ahead of themselves given the significance of the match and had “seeds of doubt” in their minds.
Had Zimbabwe won, and then beaten India in their next game, they could have been in with a chance, although an outside one, to make the semi-finals of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. However, yet another batting failure meant they could put up only 117 and lost by five wickets, the defeat pushing them to the brink of elimination.
“We’ve been quite fragile with our batting throughout this tournament,” Houghton said after the game yesterday. “It has been our bowling, really, and fielding and catching, that has kept us in. Unfortunately, it (the batting) let us down in a game like this, which would have been huge for us if we had won, because then we’ll go on to the next game with just that outside possibility. I think we just got a little bit in front of ourselves thinking of what the possibilities might be.
“One of the things I’ve tried to encourage to the team, even if our batting is a bit fragile, is to still be positive and play with fearlessness. There was a bit of movement in that wicket, and we needed to do something about it. We needed to be batting a bit more positively, using our feet going down the wicket at the seamers, but we didn’t. The seeds of doubt just kept us stuck to the crease, and unfortunately, it cost us.
“Since I’ve been in charge of the side, the last four-and-a-half months, we’ve had an incredible journey; we’ve played some really good cricket. This is probably the first time that I’ve seen a bit of doubt creep into our game. Hopefully, it’ll be the last time for a while as well.”
Earlier in the tournament, Zimbabwe had beaten Pakistan in a last-ball thriller but the high didn’t last long as they lost to Bangladesh in dramatic fashion, also on the final ball of the game.
Houghton was asked if the result against Bangladesh played a part in yesterday’s game. “Oh, no, I don’t think so,” he said. “I think we just had the doubt here. —