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Prosper Utseya

Paul Munyuki Sports Reporter
The Zimbabwe cricket side need a big win over South Africa today at Harare Sports Club if they are to make it for the One Day International triangular series final on Saturday.The winner of today’s game at Harare Sports Club will join Australia, who booked their place in the final on Tuesday following a 62-run win over arch-rivals South Africa at the same venue.

South Africa need anything above  a draw, while Zimbabwe need an outright win that includes a bonus point and an improved net run rate and coach Steven Mangongo knows they have a herculean task ahead of them.

“We will treat it as a key game and all three departments need to come to the party. The bowling, batting and fielding departments all need to play out of their skins. It is good that we have something positive to expect and our result against Australia is proof that hard work pays.

“But we still have a job to perform, and we will not read much into the previous game. Past is past now and we are looking forward to playing South Africa. Every game is different, we are still underdogs because statistics don’t lie, they are a team ranked above us and we still have a lot of work to do,” said Mangongo.

But Zimbabwe is just coming from a victory, which they all believe could have set the momentum they have always wanted after a historic three-wicket victory over Australia.

Zimbabwe had last beaten Australia in a World Cup match in 1983.

The Proteas have nine points to Zimbabwe’s four and a superior net run-rate and the South Africans have also beaten Zimbabwe four times in the ODI games they have played so far this year.

As results from the previous fixtures have shown Zimbabwe have been improving with each passing game in this triangular series and it was on Sunday that they hit the right chord with a win over the boys from Down Under.

“Our (performance) graph has been on an upward trend and we want to continue like that so we have to keep on working hard . . . No pain, no gain. That is why we are in the nets today(yesterday).

“Of course, the win over Australia brought some necessary vibe, it brought hype. We all love it when we cross the rope but the boys will have to play as professionally as they can. Yes, we are happy we got the win on Sunday, but we should not get carried away because this is a new challenge. We need to improve on our catches, we need to be good as a team and take control of the things we are able to do.

“South Africa had anticipated winning their game against the Aussies on Tuesday so that they could rest their top players for the final, but things did not go according to plan and they are now looking to field a full strength squad.”

“We respect them (Zimbabwe] and we need to beat them, so I don’t think we will rest any players for that one,” said Proteas batsman Faf du Plessis yesterday.
South Africa are indeed a wounded lion and will not be taking the game against Zimbabwe lightly but Mangongo feels Zimbabwe will have to rely on their strengths if they are to come out with a result.

“Spin (bowling) has been fantastic, but the pace bowlers have not been grouping enough balls, power-play bowling has been superb and all we need is to get our decision-making and skill factor in the lacking areas right,” said Mangongo.