Rwanda will be looking forward to causing a big upset against England when the pair faces off on Thursday, January 19, ahead of the crunch final Group B tie of the ongoing 2023 ICC U19 Women&039;s T20 World Cup in South Africa.
England are on top of the Group with two wins from two games after defeating Zimbabwe and Pakistan whereas Rwanda recovered from a narrow defeat to Pakistan to thrash Zimbabwe by 39 runs.
The game which will take place at the Senwes Park in Potchefstroom, could produce one of the biggest surprises of the tournament with in-form Henriette Ishimwe and her teammates out to outclass the World Cup favorites.
Rwanda’s head coach Leonard Nhamburo is unfazed about the standard of the English team and he maintains that both sides have equal chances of winning the game.
"The game against England will be the same against Zimbabwe. We will speak with the girls who did not score and discuss with them that, going forward, they must score some runs," Nhamburo emphasized ahead of the game with England.
"England is a big team looking at their history in cricket but, as I said before, this is the first time the tournament is being held so everyone has a fair chance. If we play well and do the correct things the results will come our way," Nhamburo said.
The Zimbabwean gaffer further emphasized that they will go all out as they have watched the English team and know their weaknesses to exploit.
"We will fight and play. We have seen how they play but they have not seen us playing so they should be worried about us but, for us, we are not worried about them. We have got our own style and approach and they have their own," he noted.
"We just maintain our style and do things we know we can do best and take it up from there," he added.
History maker Henriette Ishimwe, who was a hat trick hero when Rwanda beat Zimbabwe on Tuesday, also stressed that they have a chance of defeating England but all will depend on their output on the day.
"It's pretty possible that we can beat England as long as we perform the best we can do and at the right time. Cricket is all about a bowl and a bat. Nothing is impossible. We can beat them if we put in a good game," Ishimwe stated in the pre-match press conference.
England will be aiming to make it three wins out of three so as to sound a strong warning to rivals ahead of Super Six.
Coach Chris Guest will rely on the batting prowess of Sophie Spinner and Seren Smale to pick another win from the Group.
In all, it will be an exciting game and the team which proves purposeful will win the match though the two sides have already qualified for the next round.