Namibia, Uganda tie thrilling series 

Namibia’s Capricorn Eagles and Uganda shared their T20 International women’s series 3-3 after another thrilling finish when Uganda won their final match by one run on Tuesday.

Namibia seemed to be heading for victory when Uganda needed 12 runs off the final over, but Ritah Musamali and Stephanie Nampiina kept their composure under pressure, while Namibia lost theirs, with three overthrows coming off the final ball to give Uganda a dramatic victory. 

It was a thrilling end to a closely contested series, with fortunes swaying to and fro throughout. 

Uganda took an early 2-0 lead after winning the first two matches by two and five runs, but Namibia drew level after winning the next two by 23 and 21 runs. 

Nothing much separated the two sides in the final two encounters, with Namibia winning the fifth match by one run, while Uganda won the sixth match by the same margin.

In Tuesday’s final encounter Namibia posted a commanding 139/4 with Kayleen Green scoring 48, Yasmeen Khan 35 and Sune Witmann and Wilka Mwatile 21 each. 

Mwatile’s innings was brilliant and swung the match in Namibia’s favour. When she entered Namibia were at 113/3 with two overs to go, but she smashed two sixes and two fours off successive balls to shift the momentum Namibia’s way. 

Namibia’s bowlers then maintained the pressure, backed up by some sharp fielding which resulted in two run-outs, but a great unbeaten 72-run partnership by Musamali and Nampiina gave Uganda a thrilling victory. 

Namibia captain Wittmann summed the series up well after the match:

“If you were not entertained, I don’t know where you are going to get entertainment from. Hats off to Uganda – they played well and I think both teams can take a lot of positives from this. It’s great to see the growth over the past month and we are looking forward to what’s lying ahead,” she said. 

“We pride ourselves on our bowling and fielding, and you could see there were some spectacular one handed catches, and in the past we wouldn’t have expected that so hats off to the girls. Another key thing is that our batting is coming together – in the beginning we struggled to get to 92 or 96, but we ended up with 139 on the board, so I think when all three departments come together we will be moving in the right direction,” she added. 

Namibia coach Francois van der Merwe was quite disappointed with the outcome.

“It was a bit disappointing there at the end. I think we batted really well, we set ourselves really high standards to raise the bar and score more runs and today we did it. We got to 139 and that’s very defendable, but I think we let ourselves down today,” he said. 

“We lost the game in that pressure situation at the end, so we have to go back to the drawing board and create more situations like this for the women to grow in,” he added.

Van der Merwe, however, said there were many positives to take from the series. 

“Overall, there were some really good performances by some of the youngsters who are coming through and playing some major roles and doing really well, someone like Wilka Mwatile who was the player of the series. It’s just about building lots of experience in this environment,” he said.

Mwatile won the Player of the Series award with 316 points, followed by her sister Meke Mwatile on 307 and Wittmann on 252 points, while Esther Iloku of Uganda was the top batter with 147 runs, followed by Namibia’s Green (145) and Wittmann (127). 

Consylate Aweko of Uganda was the top bowler with six wickets at an average of 15,33, while both the Mwatile sisters, as well as compatriot Eveleen Kejarukua and Sarah Akiteng of Uganda also took six wickets. 

Namibia will now start preparing for the Africa World Cup qualifiers which they will host at the end of August.

“We will host the Africa World Cup qualifiers at the end of August, but we are hoping to host the South African National Academy in July as well. We just have to create more opportunities for these girls to play highly competitive cricket,” Van der Merwe said. 

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