ZIMBABWE Women retained the continental crown after beating Namibia by 13 runs in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Africa Region Qualifier final at the Gaborone Oval 1 in Botswana this afternoon.
The Lady Chevrons got into the tournament in Gaborone as the defending champions after winning the 2019 edition of the continental games hosted in Harare. They are now through to the ICC Global Qualifiers set for South Africa.
Vice-Captain Josephine Nkomo was voted Player-of-the-match following her all-around display that saw her contribute 22 runs from 21 balls with the bat before taking two wickets for 22 runs in fours overs as accounting for two catches while fielding.
Zimbabwe captain Mary-Anne Musonda opted to bat after winning the toss. The gamble to field injured batter Modester Mupachikwa operating at 50 per cent fitness level after pulling hamstring paid dividends as ‘Gun Gun’ , as she is affectionately known in cricket circles starred on a 76-run first-wicket partnership with Chiedza Dhururu.
Mupachikwa was the first to depart for a 28-ball 34 runs that included six boundaries after being trapped plum by medium seer Kayleen Green on the penultimate ball of the 12th over.
Musonda was out first ball, clean bowled by Green for a golden duck, and Namibia could have fancied their chances of getting back into the match and restrict Zimbabwe to a gettable score. It was 76/2 after 12 overs.
However, Dhururu continued with her onslaught but fell six runs shy of a half-century when she was given out LBW off right arm off break Merczerly Gorases to leave Zimbabwe on 96/3 after 14.4 overs.
Nkomo, 22 not out and Pelagia Mujaji (12) ensured that the Lady Chevrons reached 133/4 in their allotted overs.
Namibia lost early wickets, and by the time they reached 11.3 overs, they were on 47/3. At the same point, during their batting innings, Zimbabwe had just lost one wicket for 76 runs after 11.5 overs.
Zimbabwe left-arm seamer Nomvelo Sibanda accounted for the first two wickets when she had Sune Wittmann (4) and Yasmeen Khan (7) caught by substitute fielder Audrey Mazvishaya and Nkomo after 5.2 and 7.6 overs, respectively.
Opener Adri van der Merwe (29), Wilka Mwatile (26), Green (21) and Jurriene Diergaardt (18) provided some resistance, but Zimbabwe held on to a 13-run victory as Namibia ended their 20 overs on 120/9.
Sibanda ended the match with two wickets for seven runs from two overs together with Precious Marange and Nkomo. At the same time, the trio of Esther Mbofana, Lorryn Phiri and Loreen Tshuma picked a wicket each.
