ICC T20 WORLD CUP 2022

October 19, 2022

Luke Jongwe

Bellerive Oval

Zimbabwe

Post Match Media Conference

West Indies - 153/7, Zimbabwe - 122

Q. Luke, I just wondered what the mood and the discussions were at the halfway stage around the approach to chasing that target. At the halfway stage, it looked like it was a slightly below par total, and Zimbabwe obviously went about chasing it in a specific way. I just wondered if that was something you discussed at the innings break.

LUKE JONGWE: We didn't really change much. I think we just tried doing what we were doing the previous games.

It's just one of those days where we just didn't click. We just didn't have a good partnership. We needed 50-odd, 60-odd partnership to put us over, and we didn't do that today.

Q. The power plays Zimbabwe required were well placed in terms of the asking rate, and I think Zimbabwe had only lost a couple of wickets. So when a couple more wickets fell, was there ever any thought of maybe changing approach and trying to go less risk heavy, especially because the batting was always slightly light? Or was it always just about going for the target in the same way?

LUKE JONGWE: I think it's one of those games, I think where Raza went off, we needed sevens, eights, if I'm not mistaken, and we could have dealt with it in a better way.

I just thought we have a good coach, which has been telling us to play positive cricket, and we've been trying to do that. It just didn't come through today. It just didn't come through.

Q. Is it also where Brad Evans said recently that basically the coach has said that there's no consequences for playing aggressive shots as long as the approach is right. Does that in any way bleed over to just going for the big shots, and perhaps even in occasions where the asking rate might not require it?

LUKE JONGWE: I think it's just one of those cases where I think Dave has been trying to make us play our best cricket, everyone, rather than just being in a shell. So it's not really a matter of that.

I think it just didn't work today. That's all I can say.

Q. On a final point, do you view your situation in the group, it's obviously a must win on Friday, but then the weather might be an issue. Was that something that was discussed at any point? Or are you just looking forward to it?

LUKE JONGWE: We're yet to win, so to play in the rain, we can't do anything. If Friday comes and then we're able to play, we're just going to go out there and try and win more than trying to pick on the rain that's not going to make us qualify.

Q. Not many bright spots tonight obviously with the way the game sort of fell away. One was Sikandar Raza with the ball. Saw what he did with the bat the first game and now he's doing it with the ball. Take us through what kind of player you've seen in him in terms of a leader as well within the team.

LUKE JONGWE: I think Raza forms part of our core for the whole team. He's a senior guy. So whenever it doesn't work with him with the ball, he always tries to make it up with the bat.

If it doesn't work, he's always trying to get the next guy to give him extra. Actually, it's your day today. It might not be my day. And try to get the team over the line.

Q. Obviously the result didn't go your way, but the supporters in the stands, quite a bit of Zimbabwean supporters. Does that give you support going into the next game knowing you've got such a big support base here and they believe in you as cricketers when maybe for the better part of two decades the whole cricketing world hasn't?

LUKE JONGWE: We always find our way to the Nationals because some guys who came in today, some of them had to fly from (indiscernible), so they had to make some sacrifice to be here.

Having us lose today, it didn't really paint a good picture of us thanking them, but we just hope on Friday to reverse the whole thing and be able to win and then make them proud.

THE MODERATOR: We will close tonight. Thank you very much, everybody, and we will catch up with you tomorrow in match day minus one pressers. Have a good evening.