Namibia, Zimbabwe clash in women’s cricket final

NAMIBIA’s Capricorn Eagles take on Zimbabwe in the final of the Capricorn Women’s Tri-Nations series this afternoon after the two sides topped the log standings.

Namibia still had a match against Uganda yesterday, but having already beaten Uganda twice before they had already booked their place in the final at the expense of Uganda.

Namibia’s tournament started on a great note when they beat Zimbabwe by seven wickets in their opening match on 20 April, but since then Zimbabwe have gone on a winning streak to top the table.

They struck back to comfortably beat Namibia twice – by nine wickets on Saturday, and 67 runs on Sunday, – while they also beat Uganda on three occasions to go to the top of the log on 10 points.

Namibia were second on six points before yesterday’s final group match against Uganda, while the latter were bottom of the log on zero points.

In Sunday’s 67-run defeat, Zimbabwe’s openers, Kelis Ndlovu and Sharne Mayers, set the stage with a great century partnership as they remained unbeaten throughout their 20 overs.

They eventually piled on 156 runs, with Mayers not out on 68 (9×4, 1×6), while Ndlovhu was not out on 58 (3×4, 1×6).

In response, Namibia made a good start with Sune Witmann (23) and Arrasta Diergaardt (21) putting on 34 for the first wicket, but as they chased the singles, both were needlessly run out.

Yasmeen Khan was bowled by Francisca Chipare for a golden duck, and from then on the wickets fell regularly, with Namibia being restricted to 89 for six wickets, as Zimbabwe romped to a comfortable victory.

Namibia captain Irene van Zyl was not too perturbed about the defeat,

“Cricket is a funny game, you can win the one day, but the next you can lose by quite a margin, but it’s what we learn from each game, and the levels that we are trying to reach. Cricket is not a game where you will start winning one by one in a few weeks, it’s always a building process and there are processes behind everything,” she said.

“Obviously that win over Zimbabwe was a huge confidence boost and the main thing now is to just get our self belief back and to know that we can beat them again,” she added.

Van Zyl said they need to be at their best in all departments of the game if they hope to win today’s final.

“If we get all three facets right – batting, bowling and fielding, -then anything can happen. I think today we let ourselves down with the ball, with catches that didn ‘t go to hand, but if we rock up on the day and really contribute in all three facets of the game then I think we can expect a pretty interesting game,” she said.

Today’s final will start at 14h00 at the CCD field in Pionierspark.

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