The national cricket women team on Tuesday, September 14 beat hosts Botswana by 3 wickets in the ongoing ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Africa Qualifiers after a shock defeat to Tanzania on Monday. This is Rwanda’s third victory in the ongoing qualifiers out of a possible four before they play a decider against Zimbabwe on September 16. Head coach Leonard Nhamburo’s ladies needed at least 105 runs to win the game after Botswana managed to put up 94/9 in the first innings after Rwanda won the toss and opted to bowl first. They were made to play their cards right after posting 75/4 at the end of 16 overs, meaning that they needed 20 runs in 4 overs to win. Henriette put up a player of the match performance, making 11 runs after three overs to keep her side in the race for the top two before they face top-of-the-table Zimbabwe in a game that will decide who progress to the semifinals in Group A. The win eased some pressure on Nhamburo and his side as they bounced back from Monday’s defeat against Tanzania by 43 runs. It took Nhamburo a lot of energy to prepare his women for the Botswana game as he knew a win would help regain confidence before facing a tough Zimbabwean side which has not lost a single game throughout the qualifying campaign. “The tournament is still open and we still have a lot of hopes ahead of the Zimbabwe tie. So, we’ll not worry too much about the Tanzania loss because the defeat is part of the game that we wanted to win. We need to move forward and think about how best we can win the last group game,” Nhamburo said Prior to the Zimbabwe game, Rwanda sits third on the table and are level on points (six) with second-placed Tanzania while unbeaten Zimbabwe remain at the top with eight points after four games. The top two teams in Group A will join other two teams in Group A to play the semi-finals which are scheduled on September 17.
