ICC T20 WORLD CUP 2022

November 1, 2022

Craig Ervine

Adelaide Oval

Zimbabwe

Pre Match Media Conference

Q. How is your preparation going for the coming games? And Zimbabwe is struggling in the fielding; what are you doing to overcome the fielding weakness?

CRAIG ERVINE: So firstly, to answer your first question, obviously since we've arrived, the weather hasn't been so great, so we've actually had the day off yesterday because it was a traveling day. Today also obviously we're going to take off just because of the weather. On top of that, it's been quite taxing on the guys with the amount of travel. So we're looking at having a couple days' rest and for guys to come into tomorrow's game with a lot of energy, which will probably answer the second question in terms of the fielding.

I think it's definitely something that let us down in the last game against Bangladesh, and hopefully with the guys being well-rested coming into tomorrow's game, our fielding will be much improved.

Q. You mentioned about rain in the air. You've been at the brunt of that when the first game was washed out. How do you see yourself going from here? What is the mood in the camp looking for a spot in the semifinal?

CRAIG ERVINE: I think the mood in the camp is very good. We obviously need to play tomorrow and we also need to pick up two points to give ourselves that slim chance of making the semis. But again, we can't look too far ahead in this tournament. We've got to take each game as it comes, and our focus will definitely be on trying to pick up a win tomorrow against Netherlands.

Q. Was there a sense of disappointment when you let that game slip away from you? You looked at one point you'd come back well.

CRAIG ERVINE: I think the disappointing part was probably our fielding. I thought that we do pride ourselves on good fielding, and we could easily have saved 10, 15 runs in the field there. But credit to Sean Williams and Ryan Burl at the back end there to actually get us that close, because at one stage it looked like we weren't going to get close to 150.

They batted extremely well to give ourselves a chance. I thought we let ourselves down quite heavily in the field, and then at the start of our batting innings, from a position of 35 for 4, it always makes it very difficult to get over the line from there.

Q. This tournament, can this be the turning point for Zimbabwe cricket for so long, to come back and once again establish yourself as a nation?

CRAIG ERVINE: Look, I think the last few months, I think Zimbabwe cricket has been great from strength to strength. We've had some really, really good results. I think it's not just this World Cup, I think it's something that we need to try and do consistently going forward.

You can always have a really good World Cup, and then after that things drop back down again. That's going to be the challenge for us is to keep this momentum up and keep these performances coming through.

Q. Would you like to describe and explain, share your experience for things for you and your boys, the experience of playing with A-class teams, even Pakistan and others? I want to listen to the positive things so far from you.

CRAIG ERVINE: Look, I think one of the positives is obviously how far we've come from doing the qualifiers in Zimbabwe to then qualifying here at the World Cup. Just the opportunity to then play at the various stadiums around Australia, to get to see the different sights, although we've only spent a few days in each city, I think the highlight for a lot of the boys was playing at Optus. That stadium is incredible. I don't think we'll probably play at a better stadium.

I think to top it off, obviously beating Pakistan in such a close game.

There's so many positives that guys will take from this tournament, regardless of the next two results.

But obviously the real highlight for us would be to make the semis. I think that would really put the icing on the cake. The guys are still very positive that we'll get there. We've just got to come into these last two games with a lot of energy. It has been a long, taxing tour, but we did arrive slightly later, but yeah, so many good things and so many sights that we've seen around Australia, it's been brilliant.