Namibia stun Zimbabwe 

Namibia’s senior women’s cricket team, the Capricorn Eagles produced a stunning three-wicket victory against Zimbabwe on Sunday to throw the Capricorn Eagles Tri-Nations T20 series wide open. 

Zimbabwe were restricted to 101 runs for 8 wickets, before Namibia reached the winning target for the loss of seven wickets and five balls to spare, with Mezerly Gorases (27) and Sylvia Shihepo (23 not out) leading their assault.

In Zimbabwe’s innings, Modester Mupachikwa scored 39 runs, but Namibia’s bowlers chipped away with regular wickets while their fielders maintained the pressure with some fine fielding to restrict Zimbabwe to a modest total of 101. 

Namibia captain Sune Wittmann took two wickets for 12 runs while Arrasta Diergaardt took two for five runs. 

Namibia’s innings got off to a tentative start as Yasmeen Khan (5) and Wilka Mwatile (4) were dismissed cheaply, but Wittmann and Gorases took the score to 36 before Wittmann was bowled for 10 by Kelly Ndhlovu. 

Arrasta Diergaardt soon followed for one, but Gorases and Edelle van Zyl took the score to 68 before Van Zyl was dismissed for 11, and with Namibia needing 34 runs off 30 balls, it was still anyone’s game. 

The momentum swung back to Namibia when Sylvia Shihepo and Gorases took the score to 86, but Beloved Biza made a double breakthrough for Zimbabwe, dismissing Gorases (27) and Meke Mwatile (0) off successive balls, and with Namibia needing 16 off 12 balls, Zimbabwe were back in the driving seat. 

Shihepo, however, displayed nerves of steel, taking nine runs off the penultimate over by Josephine Nkomo, while Irene van Zyl added a four, and when Shihepo smashed a four off the first ball of Biza’s final over, Namibia had sealed a dramatic victory.

It was a great response to their opening seven-wicket defeat to the UAE on Friday and Wittmann said it was an emotional occasion. 

“Honestly, I’m feeling a bit emotional because when we went back to the drawing board after losing our first match against UAE, one of the things we said was that we are doing this for pride, and all of us do it for the team and the people who come out to support us. We really had to dig deep today and I’m super proud of all of our ladies,” she said. 

“One thing we speak about a lot is momentum and when you win against a quality side like Zimbabwe who are way ahead of us in head-to-head matches, it gives us momentum going further into the tri-series, and it boosts our pride. We just said this morning that we are role models for the young girls out there and I think we displayed role model material out there today,” she added. 

Namibia’s elation, however, did not last long as they suffered a 16-run defeat to UAE yesterday. 

After being sent in to bat UAE scored 141 all out off their 20 overs, with their openers Esha Oza and Satish Theertha scoring 42 and 41 runs respectively, while Namibia’s best bowlers were Arrasta Diergaardt with four wickets for 15 runs, and Saima Tuhadeleni with 3/36. 

In reply, Namibia reached 126 for seven wickets off their 20 overs with Wilka Mwatile scoring 31, Edelle van Zyl 23 and Yasmeen Khan 20, while Oza took three wickets for 29 runs. 

UAE now lead the log with two wins from three matches, while Zimbabwe and Namibia have one win each.