World Cup dream over

The Namibian Women’s Cricket team’s dreams of qualifying for next year’s Women’s T20 World Cup are shattered after they suffered a 50-run defeat to Zimbabwe in the African Qualifying final in Harare.

Zimbabwe’s Lady Chevrons skipped the first hurdle, in their quest for a place at the ICC T20 Women Cup next year, by winning the African qualifier they hosted. This will be in Scotland where they will battle for a spot at the global cricket showcase.
A second-wicket partnership of 66 between Sharne Mayers and Chipo Mugeri-Tiripano rescued Zimbabwe Women from a difficult start and propelled them towards an eventual 50-run victory over Namibia Women in the final of the ICC Women’s Qualifier Africa 2019 at Harare Sports Club yesterday.
As expected, Namibia provided a sterner challenge for the Zimbabweans than they had encountered before, but in the end their superior play proved too much for their gallant oppo-nents, who made the fatal mistake of allowing the required run rate to get on top of them as they chased their target of 115.
Scoreboard Zimbabwe Women: 114-5 in 20 overs (Chipo Mugeri-Tiripano 36, Sharne Mayers 36, Josephine Nkomo 14; Kayleen Green 2/22, Sune Wittmann 1/15, Irene van Zyl1/25)
Namibia Women: 64-9 in 20 overs (Sune Wittmann 18, Yasmeen Khan 11, Adri van der Merwe 10; Anesu Mushangwe 3/6, Josephine Nkomo 3/12, Tasmeen Granger 2/7)
Despite Namibia’s failure to win the tournament, they displayed a remarkable improvement over the past two years. At the Africa T20 women’s qualifier that Namibia hosted two years ago, they finished fourth after winning just one out of their three group matches.
They beat Tanzania by six wickets, but lost to Uganda by 18 runs, to Zimbabwe by eight wickets and to Kenya by 18 runs, before once again beating Tanzania by six wickets in the fourth place play-off. This time Namibia won all their group matches in Harare to finish on top of Group B with six points. They beat Kenya by 39 runs, Uganda by 14 runs and Sierra Leone by 10 wickets.
Namibia Women’s Team is thankful for all the support received by fans and the Hosts – Zimbabwe.
The 2020 Women’s T20 World Cup will be held in Australia in February and March next year.