The Champions
By Dickson Bandera
Zimbabwe Women on Monday booked their place to the final round of the ICC T20 Women’s World Cup Qualifiers after they defeated Uganda Women by 6 wickets in the final at the Entebbe Cricket Oval in Entebbe, Uganda.
Zimbabwe won the toss and opted to bowl first, but Uganda would be dismissed with a paltry 79 runs. Uganda’s Victoria Pearls struggled from the outset. Opener Kevin Awino scored 5 runs in 29 balls. Stephani Nampiina played a knock of 26 runs in 26 balls. That was the highest score of the team. Uganda was dismissed for 79 runs.
Zimbabwe’s Precious Marange continued with her fine spell as she led the charge with a five-wicket haul of 5/7, after securing three wickets in each of the previous games. Marange was exceptional throughout the tournament, including the final, picking up three Player of the Match awards in five games.
Their turn in the reply, Zimbabwe’s Modester Mupachikwa was excellent with the bat, amassing 22 runs, while skipper Mary-Anne Musonda led from the front with her contribution of 21 off 17. Kelis Ndhlovu remained unbeaten on 15 runs.
With her contributions, Mupachikwa was the highest run-scorer of the African leg of the qualifiers, with 131 runs in 5 matches. Her compatriot and captain Musonda accumulated the second-highest tally, with a total of 108 runs in 5 matches, underpinning the dominance of the Zimbabwe’s Lady Chevrons.
Team Zimbabwe received further top honours, with Precious Marange leading the bowling charge, with a haul of 13 wickets in 5 games, keeping the best for last with her standout five-fer in the final making her the only player in the tournament to strike a five-wicket haul.
The winners of the Africa Qualifiers will be joined by finalists Uganda’s Lady Cranes at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifiers where they will be two of ten teams hoping to qualify for the ICC Women’s World Cup scheduled for Bangladesh next year in September and October.
The ten Global qualified teams are Ireland, Sri Lanka, Thailand, UAE, Vanuatu, USA, Netherlands, Scotland, Zimbabwe and Uganda and will battle for the final two spots in Dubai in February.
Meanwhile, the top six teams – Australia, South Africa, England, India, New Zealand and the West Indies at the previous World Cup hosted in South Africa have automatically qualified for the showpiece in Bangladesh.
