T20 World Cup: It has been a long wait, says Zimbabwe’s Wessley Madhvere after qualifying for world tournament

The T20 World Cup spots have been finalised with Netherlands and Zimbabwe making it to the final two positions for Australia.

Zimbabwe all-rounder Wessley Madhvere said on Friday, 15 July that they have wait a long time to play in the T20 World Cup. Zimbabwe, who had their last representation in 2016, had gone down the pecking order in world cricket during their controversial tenure. A dark period in Zimbabwe cricket, the country was banned by the International Cricket Council for failing to keep the government out of their cricketing business.

Undefeated in the current ICC qualifiers till now, Zimbabwe defeated Papua New Guinea in the semi-final match by a big margin of 27 runs. Speaking after the game, Zimbabwe all-rounder Wessley Madhvere said that it was quite surreal for them qualify to the main tournament.

"Feeling quite chuffed. When everything you’ve been working for comes out right there is no better feeling than that. It is massive. Everyone’s been waiting for that. It has been a long wait, it has been a tough journey and for it to actually happen, it’s like a dream come true," he said.

Current coach Dave Houghton, who tool over from Lalchand Rajput said that they had to be wary of PNG, since they had nothing to lose in the tournament. The PNG team, which includes the likes of Assad Vala and Charles Amini gave a good showing in the 2021 World Cup qualifiers.

In the semi-final, PNG could not put up a great showing against Zimbabwe, who took the game by the scruff of its neck while defending 200 runs. At a point PNG were reeling at 34/3 in 5 overs, before a mini revival was done by Tony Ura and Charles Amini. PNG managed to get to 172 runs at the end of their 20 overs.

Zimbabwe take on Netherlands in the final of the qualifiers.