It was the sixteenth over of their 2023 T20 World Cup Qualifier semi-final towards Eire. Zimbabwe have been chasing 138 and have been 99 for 4. Needing 39 runs in 29 balls, the strain was constructing.
They misplaced two wickets within the subsequent 14 balls and solely scored 9 runs. In the event that they have been going to recover from the road, Nkomo must take them there.
Over the subsequent 10 days, Zimbabwe have the prospect to verify Nkomo, and the 11 different squad members who witnessed that defeat first-hand in 2022 do not undergo that once more as they play within the 2024 T20 World Cup Qualifier in Abu Dhabi.
They’re grouped with Eire, Netherlands, UAE and Vanuatu, and should end within the prime two to achieve the semi-final, the place they are going to face considered one of Sri Lanka, Scotland, Thailand, Uganda or the USA and should win that knockout recreation to qualify for the World Cup. Sri Lanka, who’ve gained sequence in England and South Africa, and Eire, who beat Zimbabwe to a spot on the final T20 World Cup, are the favourites and Zimbabwe will wish to prime their group to keep away from Sri Lanka within the semis. It is a cut-throat occasion which rewards the perimeters that may deal with strain over 5 matches greatest. Zimbabwe now have some expertise of that.
Final month, they gained the inaugural cricket occasion on the Africa Video games the place they defeated South Africa in a Tremendous Over within the ultimate. Although their group matches have been all towards groups ranked decrease than them and the ultimate was not an official T20I as a result of South Africa fielded an rising facet, Zimbabwe nonetheless took rather a lot from the expertise.
“We actually had fun on the market in Ghana. We had a profitable event as a group and towards South Africa and we received over the road,” Nkomo mentioned. “It was an thrilling recreation with a lot adrenaline in it and we actually had a whole lot of enjoyable.”
By the way, it was Nkomo who hit the successful runs within the Tremendous Over and taking over a management position in crunch moments has turn into a part of her general strategy to the sport. She is considered one of a handful of Zimbabwean gamers who has expertise overseas and has performed membership cricket in each Australia and England, which have knowledgeable her recreation consciousness.
“In England, I received the chance to take accountability rather a lot as a result of, in membership cricket, for those who’re the professional there, it means all obligations are on you. So I took that again residence as properly. I understand how to play my position greater than earlier than. And I understand how to be accountable and to take accountability for my very own recreation.”
Now, Nkomo and the remainder of the ladies’s group should take accountability for the relevance of cricket of their nation. Zimbabwe’s males’s group failed twice final yr of their efforts to qualify for a World Cup which signifies that the earliest they may seem at a worldwide event is the T20 World Cup in 2026. The ladies’s group have two alternatives earlier than that: this yr’s T20 World Cup and subsequent yr’s ODI World Cup.
They perceive that for now, conserving Zimbabwe current as a global high quality facet is as much as them. Additionally they recognise the chance it offers for them as a group: to be seen on a world stage.
“It will imply rather a lot as a result of that is what we have been ready for. That is what we have been studying for. And that is the time to seize that chance,” Nkomo mentioned. “It is going to change our lives. For positive it would, in a optimistic manner.”
