TEENAGE prodigy Beloved Biza made a stunning senior team debut, claiming player of the match honours as Zimbabwe Women beat USA by five wickets in the opening One Day International of their five-match series at Harare Sports Club yesterday.
The 15-year-old all-rounder and Herentals Chitungwiza Campus student picked three wickets for 22 runs in eight overs as Zimbabwe restricted USA to 152 all out inside 43.5 overs. Zimbabwe captain Josephine Nkomo also took three wickets giving away 29 runs from 6.5 overs while Audrey Mazvishaya and Christabel Chatonzwa claimed two apiece.
Zimbabwe then chased down USA’s total reaching 154/5 in 34.3 overs. Again, Biza featuring promptly with 38 runs from 51 balls and skipper Nkomo unbeaten on 33 from 45 balls.
Nkomo was elated with the victory but singled out the team’s top order as an area of concern.
“It was a good result and of course there are few areas that we need to work on especially on our batting,” said Nkomo who is standing in for the injured captain Mary-Anne Musonda.
“I think upfront we didn’t have a good platform but apart from that I thought the girls really played well. We will take the win.”
Zimbabwe opener Sharne Mayers went out for a golden duck. Modester Mupachikwa scored 16, Chipo Mugeri-Tiripano weighed in with a 34-ball 29 while Ashley Ndiraya (11) and another debutant Runyararo Pasipanodya laboured to an unbeaten five runs from 30 balls.
“I think you just need to be firm with them (debutants). You just need to have clear plans on what you want to do and make sure that they know what they are required to do. Otherwise there are no issues I thought they executed really well especially Beloved,” added Nkomo.
“Runyararo was a little bit nervous. I tried as much as I could to just continue talking to her. We had plenty of overs to play so this was the game for her to get herself in, get to face as many balls as she could.”
Zimbabwe leads the series 1-0. The second ODI is scheduled for Harare Sports Club on Sunday morning.
