The U-19 women’s national cricket team launched their voyage to the first ever U-19 Women’s T20 World Cup with a win against Namibia at the Botswana Cricket Association Oval 2 in Gaborone.
Today Uganda beat Namibia by four wickets to sign up their first victory at the ICC U-19 Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifiers being held in Botswana.
Baby pearls Captain Jimia Muhammad won the toss and elected to bowl first, confining Namibia to 85 runs for the fall of five wickets in the first innings.
All-rounder Patricia Timong razed three of the Namibian wickets and scored 18 runs off 43 balls to emerge Player of the match in the series.
Captain Jimia Muhammad started as a fireball in the second innings with an 84.61 strike rate but was tamed down by a catch from Mezerly Gorases after 11 runs off 13 balls before she was sent off.
A pair of Malisa Ariokot and Immaculate Nandera stood out as well to rescue their side that was sulking with the loss of the sixth wicket against Namibia’s five.
Malisa scored 20 runs off 22 balls while Immaculate rallied nine off 11 balls, both not out to round off Uganda’s 87 runs.
The win keeps the teenagers motivated as they look forward to facing West Africa’s Sierra Leone U19s Women in match 8 tomorrow -Sunday- at 15:00 (EAT) on the same wicket.
From other games played today, hosts Botswana beat Sierra Leone by one wicket in a tight contest, Tanzania proved they were a no match against Mozambique, winning by nine wickets in a landslide style, and Nigeria lost to Rwanda by nine runs.
The tournament is a qualification process for the first-ever Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup that will take place in South Africa from January 2023.
With nations drawn into group A and B, Uganda is in Group B alongside host Botswana, Namibia and Sierra Leone. Group A has Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Malawi and Mozambique.
The top two sides from each group will advance to the semi-finals and later finals. The winner of the tournament will earn the only single converted spot to the World Cup.
Team Uganda
