NAMIBIA’s national u19 women’s team excelled to win an Eight Nations Women’s T20 Cricket tournament in Gaberone, Botswana over the past week.
Namibia reached the final unbeaten, posting some big victories along the way, and then in the final were one again too strong for Botswana, winning the match by nine wickets.
Namibia’ also excelled at the awards ceremony, picking up all the top individual awards. Phia Gerber was the Player of the Tournament; Hannelise de Klerk the Bowler of the Tournament; and Yasmeen Khan the Batsman of the Tournament.
The participating nations were Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia, Malawi, Lesotho and a South Africa Invitational XI.
In their first match last Thursday, Namibia thrashed Swaziland by 254 runs. Namibia scored 267 for four wickets off only 20 overs and then skittled Swaziland out for a meagre 13 runs.
Phia Gerber (98), Yasmeen Khan (90) and Hannelise de Klerk (26) were Namibia’s top batsmen, while De Klerk with three wickets and Sylvia Shihepo with four were Namibia’s top bowlers. Phia Gerber won the Player of the Match award.
The following day Namibia scored another landslide victory, beating Lesotho by 213 runs.
Namibia scored 254 for one wicket off their 20 overs with Yasmeen Khan (102) and Carmen Engelbrecht (101) both scoring centuries.
Namibia then skittled Lesotho out for 41 with Hannelise de Klerk and Sylvia Shihepo each taking three wickets and Arrasta Diergaardt two. Khan and Engelbrecht shared the Player of the Match award.
On Saturday, 27 August, Namibia faced much stronger opposition in Botswana but managed to win the match by 25 runs.
Namibia scored 111 runs for five wickets off their 20 overs and then reduced Botswana to 86 for seven wickets.
Phia Gerber top-scored for Namibia with 52 runs while Yasmeen Khan added 23. Namibia’s top bowlers were Gerber, Arrasta de Klerk and Sylvia Shihepo who each took two wickets, while Gerber won her second Player of the Match award.
On Sunday, Namibia came up against Mozambique in the semifinals and once again posted a one-sided victory to reach the final.
Batting first, Mozambique scored 66 runs for eight wickets off their 20 overs, while Namibia replied with 69 for one wicket.
Namibia’s top bowlers were Arrasta Diergaardt with three wickets and Hannelise de Klerk with two, while Phia Gerber (31 not out) was the top batsman. Diergaardt won the Player of the Match award.
In the final Namibia once again came up against Botswana, but this time they were in control from the start and posted a much bigger victory.
Batting first, Botswana posted 116 for four wickets – a total that was never enough as Namibia easily reached 120 for the loss of only one wicket to win the match by nine wickets.
Yasmeen Khan (59) and Phia Gerber (43) were Namibia’s top batsmen while Gerber and Hannelise de Klerk were the top bowlers with two wickets each.
Yasmeen Khan won the Batsman of the Tournament award with a total of 287 runs at an average of 71,27, while Hannelise de Klerk won the Bowler of the Tournament award with 10 wickets at an average of 5,7.
Phia Gerber won the Player of the Tournament award with 229 runs at an average of 76,33 and six wickets at an average of 4,00.
Namibia’s coach, Gareth Cloete said he was very happy with the result.
“I put in a lot of hard work with these girls since the beginning of the year. We played good, positive cricket and I’m very happy with the results,” he said, adding that they hope to once again be in action in Namibia before the end of the year.
“We hope to invite a few countries for the Raymond van Schoor tournament later this year and so far Botswana, Zambia and Malawi have shown an interest to come,” he said.
