Ditlhase and Tladi Cricket teams have booked their place in this year’s Botswana Cricket Association (BCA) T20 tournament. Ditlhase lost by seven wickets to Shining Stars but proceeded to the semis with a superior Net Run Rate (NRR) while Tladi proceeded at the expense of Southern Rocks. In what could be dubbed ‘do or die’ matches last weekend for three teams, namely, Ditlhase, Tladi and Shining Stars, who were all tied in points in the South Region BCA T20 points table, only emphatic victories were needed to decide semi finalists and both Ditlhase and Tladi delivered.
Top of the weekend’s clashes in the South was the battle between Ditlhase and Shining Stars. Going into the decisive game, it was Ditlhase who won the toss and elected to bat first. While Ditlhase would have hoped to set an insurmountable score for Shining Stars to chase, things did not go their way as they were restricted to 82 runs for the loss of 8 wickets in their allotted 20 overs. Spearheading an assault on Ditlhase’s batsmen was the duo of Dhruv Maisuira and Thatayaone Tshose. Between them, the two claimed five of the eight Ditlhase wickets, with Maisuira ending the match with three wickets and having conceded only 11 runs while Tshose took 2 wickets for 8 runs. It was a bad day for the Ditlhase batsmen as none could master anything beyond thirty runs, with their best batter being Inzimam Master with 30 runs while Aalap Shah only managed a paltry 21 runs.
Chasing a paltry 82 runs, Shining Stars easily won the game, scoring 84 runs for the loss of just three wickets with 2.3 overs to spare. The youthful Rashaad Mosweu scored 35 runs while Thabang Nshomane scored 18 runs helping Shining Stars win. It was however a Pyrrhic victory for Shining Stars as they ended with a low run rate and lost out on a place in the semis. In another decisive game between Tladi and Southern Rocks, it was Tladi who won the toss and elected to bat first as they sought to better their net run rate and qualify for the semi finals. Against a team that has not won a single match in the tournament, Faisal Rana Rasheed scored 79 runs while Waseem Tajbhay pitched in with 49 runs to help Tladi post a mammoth 213 runs for the loss of four wickets in 20 overs.
Faced with such a huge total runs to chase, Southern Rocks never got close as they were all bowled out for just 52 runs. Against the batting prowess of Vimal Joseph and Adithya Rangaswamy, who claimed 4 wickets each for 8 and 16 runs respectively, there was no way out for Southern Rocks. The win meant Tladi finished second behind Ditlhase. Tladi will now face off against the first placed team from the North Region while Ditlhase, who finished first in the points table, will face off against the runner up from the North Region in the semifinals. The BCA T20 semifinals will be played this coming Saturday and winners will meet on Sunday to decide the champions.
