Botswana made its debut at the annual tournament last year and failed to win a game in four attempts. This year, it was looking bleak after five straight defeats left Botswana with bitter memories of the past. However, the Reginald Nehonde-coached outfit finally broke their duck at the tournament, which is held in remembrance of the victims of the 1994 genocide.
Germany, the competition’s lightweights, became Botswana’s first ever casualty at the tournament. The signs of a turnaround were evident from day one as Botswana were a much-improved side from last year.
They matched Kenya in the opening match, managing to score 102, chasing a victory target of 138. In the next game, Botswana’s batting collapse was on display as the team bowled out for 62, in pursuit of Tanzania’s 119. In their game against Nigeria, Botswana failed to hit a century of runs as they scored 88 in their allotted 20 overs before the Nigerians romped to a comfortable seven-wicket victory. The tournament’s newcomers, Brazil also managed one over Botswana.
The Brazilians inserted Botswana to bat and restricted the southern Africans to 113 before surpassing the score in the 20th over. On Tuesday, however, Botswana’s turn to register victory finally presented itself against the tournament’s whipping team, Germany. Botswana won by 17 runs to register their only victory in the group stages.
On Wednesday, Botswana girls were back to default settings, losing by six wickets to Rwanda, before rounding up their group stage campaign with a comprehensive nine-wicket loss to Uganda yesterday. Botswana finished the group stages in a deflating manner as they were bowled out for a lowly 35 after being asked to bat first. Uganda took only 7.3 overs to surpass the total for the loss of one wicket. Botswana will seek to avoid the wooden spoon when they play Germany today to determine positions seven and eight.
