After a few difficult years for cricket fans in the African country, Zimbabwe coach Dave Houghton said on Wednesday that his team’s T20 World Cup success had “brought the game back to life” at home.
After losing to the Netherlands in Adelaide on Wednesday, Zimbabwe was all but eliminated from the tournament. However, not before thrillingly defeating Asian powerhouse Pakistan by one run.
Prior to then, Houghton’s youthful squad had easily defeated Scotland and Ireland to go to the Super 12.
After his side fell by five wickets to the Dutch in Group 2 at the Adelaide Oval, Houghton told reporters, “It has meant a hell of a lot not only to folks at home, but Zimbabweans throughout the globe.”
“The messages we always get from everyone have been incredible.
In this tournament, we’ve played a lot of night games, and when I come back to the hotel, I’m still responding to messages at four or five in the morning. It has been amazing.
He applauded his youthful team for their courageous play, but he acknowledged that they needed to improve their batting.
“Our batting has been rather flimsy throughout this tournament, and what has kept us in it has been our bowling, fielding, and catching,” added Houghton.
“Unfortunately, in a game like this, it has slowed us down.”
On Wednesday, they were all out for a disappointing 117 against the Netherlands, after a heartbreaking three-run loss to Bangladesh.
Before their last encounter against India on Sunday, Zimbabwe would have had a remote chance of advancing to the semifinals had they won any of those games.
If we had won, Houghton recalled, “that would have been significant for us because we would go on to that game with simply the prospect.”
But in the last four and a half months since I took over, we’ve had a fantastic adventure.
“We’ve played some very fantastic cricket, and I think today is the first time I’ve seen a little bit of uncertainty creeping into our performance.
Therefore, hopefully, that will be the last time for a long.
Houghton claimed to have received messages informing him that the accomplishments of his squad had made Zimbabweans happy both at home and abroad.
Even if we lost today, they will still have liked seeing us and will still be proud of us, according to Houghton. “They’ve appreciated the fact that we are able to come out and stand toe-to-toe with some of the finest,” he said.
I told the players, “You guys have brought the game back to life in Zimbabwe,” after the game, as you may recall.