NAMIBIA’s women excelled to win the Botswana Sevens T20 International tournament in Gaberone last week.
Namibia won all six of their matches to finish on top of the log, while they also set some world records in the process.
They beat Lesotho by 179 runs which was the biggest victory margin in Women’s T20 internationals.
In that match Namibia scored 210 for five wickets, with Yasmeen Khan scoring 61 off 33 balls and Adri van der Merwe 57 runs off 48 balls.
Namibia then bundled Lesotho out for 31 runs with Kayleen Green taking two wickets for five runs.
They also set a new world record against Mozambique after dismissing them for 25 runs, which was the lowest total yet in a women’s international T20 match.
Another record in that match was the shortest completed innings by balls – 13,4 overs – in this case, while it was also the largest victory margin by wickets, ie 10 wickets. Namibia used only 13 balls to reach the total with Yasmeen Khan scoring 21 not out.
Namibian batsman Adri van der Merwe won the Player of the Tournament award after some fine performances.
She was the second highest run scorer at the tournament with a total of 189 runs at an exceptional average of 94,50.
Other Namibian players also featured prominently on the overall batting and bowling statistics.
Namibian captain Yasmeen Khan scored the third most runs of 163 at an average of 40,75, while Sylvia Shihepo and Kayleen Green shone amongst the bowlers. Shihepo took the fourth most wickets of nine, at an average of 11,67, while Green took eight wickets at an average of 10,25.
Namibia finished on top of the log on 10 points, followed by Sierra Leone on eight, Botswana on six, Mozambique on four, and Malawi and Lesotho on zero points each.
Namibia’s coach Christopher Coombe said he was surprised by their success but their hard work paid off.
“The girls worked very hard and their dedication and commitment showed on the field. Our fielding was great as well as our bowling and in most of the matches we managed to get the opponents out for low totals,” he said.
Another plus, according to Coombe was the overall youth of the team, with only one players in her thirties, while most of the girls were still under 19 or under 17.
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