UNBEATEN half-centuries from captain Mary-Anne Musonda and Josephine Nkomo steered Zimbabwe to a 7-wicket victory over Thailand Women’s cricket team in the first unofficial One Day International (ODI) played at Takashinga Sports Club in Highfield, Harare.
Chasing 200 for victory, Zimbabwe started very strongly with an opening stand of 59 runs for the first wicket between Ashley Ndiraya and Christabel Chatonzwa.
On a sluggish Takashinga Sports Club, Chatonzwa, who was playing anchor, was dismissed for 22 runs from 44 balls in a knock that comprised four boundaries. She was caught behind by wicketkeeper
Nannapat Koncharoenkai off the bowling of Sornnarin Tippoch.
Ndiraya looked good for a half-century but played one shot too many and was caught by Onnicha Kamchomphu to become Ratanaporn Padunglerd first victim of the match.
Modester Mupachikwa was looking to continue from where she left during the series against the South Africa Emerging side.
She had to weather a period when run-scoring was hard as Thailand spinners strung together some good overs. They also probably made a record in the women’s game by only bowling 40 plus overs of spin. When they tried to bowl pace once, you were left confused whether that was pace or extremely slow pace bowling.
Mupachikwa and Musonda put on 20 runs for the third wicket, and just as the two batters started changing gears, Mupachikwa missed a straight ball from Padunglerd to be clean bowled for 20 from 31 balls.
It was left to the skipper Musonda and Nkomo, who was the stand-in captain against South Africa Emerging side, to show their class.
Musonda, who looked rusty because of the knee operation, got into her groove and punished anything pitched up and drove crisply, eating into the Thailand total.
Nkomo matched her captain by scoring freely and was not afraid to go the aerial route as she found the boundary with regularity.
It seems like batting at five and taking some form of responsibility has helped Nkomo grow in confidence as she scored another well-played half-century, striking at around 77 per cent.
Musonda also got to 50 just before the Lady Chevrons got to the victory target, which is a great sign for Zimbabwe as they prepare for the World Cup qualifying tournament in Botswana.
Zimbabwe had won the toss sent Thailand in, and the move paid off immediately as the first wicket fell on the seventh ball of the Thailand innings. Wongpaka Liengprasert was bowled through the gate for a duck by Nkomo.
Nattaya Boochatham did not last long as she tried to take on Nomvelo Sibanda but only found the hands of Nkomo, who seemed to be everywhere.
Wicketkeeper batter, Koncharoenkai and Naruemol Chaiwai, the captain, tried to give their team something to bowl by putting runs on the board as the hosts did not give anything away.
Unfortunately for Thailand, both batters were striking the ball at just 50 per cent, which did not help their team’s cause.
Chaiwai top-scored for Thailand with an unbeaten 67 runs from 120 balls with six boundaries.
Just as Thailand struggled to get to the 190-run mark, Chanida Sutthiruang played a gem of an innings by scoring an unbeaten run-a-ball 55 runs to give the Asian side a fighting chance.
Nkomo was the pick of Zimbabwe bowlers with two wickets for 37 runs in her 10 overs.
Zimbabwe lead the four-match Unofficial ODI series 1 – 0. The second match will be at the same venue on Friday.
