Botswana had made a stuttering start when the Herons suffered a heavy defeat against a resolute Kenya, going down by 111 runs on Saturday. The home side was bundled out for a paltry 53, chasing an imposing 166 to win.
Kenya had won the toss and decided to bat, and saw their batters hit the ball to all corners of the pitch as the Botswana bowlers toiled. The result was never in doubt as the Herons made a slow start, slumping to 13 for five in the ninth over. Five batswomen were removed for a duck as Kenya tightened the screw in a contest that was never in doubt.
However, yesterday, playing against the game’s lightweights, Lesotho, the local girls were uncompromising. The Lesotho bowlers were taught a lesson as Botswana posted a mammoth 204 in 20 overs before suffocating life out of their sorry opponents. Botswana bowled a tight line and length, giving little away as Lesotho folded to 31 all out in just nine over. The home side’s next assignment is a must-win tie against Malawi on Tuesday, with the qualifiers taking place at the Botswana Cricket Association (BCA) Oval. Coach Stanley Timoni was happy with the way the girls responded after a tough opening day. “Our batting, bowling and fielding was bad (against Kenya). After that we had to go back to the drawing board and spoke about what we did right and what we did wrong,” he noted. “ Here we are today, we polished our batting, fielding and bowling and we had a win. Besides the win, we are not relaxing, we have a tough match against Malawi on Tuesday. We need to do our basics right,” Timoni added.
Team captain, Laura Mophakedi was equally impressed with the response against Lesotho. “We just wanted to punish the bad balls and bowl as straight as we could. We just kept the game simple and I believe most of the players today (Sunday) were more relaxed than yesterday (Saturday). I think on Saturday we had a lot of stage fright,” Mophakedi said.
The top two teams from the two groups will make it to the final. The other pool has Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Eswatini and Cameroon Eight teams are competing in the qualifier, which will see the two finalists, proceed to the Division One qualifier in Uganda in December. Ten teams are due to participate in the Women's T20 World Cup which Bangladesh hosts next year. Eight teams have sealed their spot for the global event. The remaining two spots will be filled by a global qualifier. The top two teams from the regional qualifier which Botswana is hosting, will join Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe in Uganda for the continental qualifier.
