Botswana cricket women’s team has failed to impress at the Kwibuka T20 women’s tournament which was held in Rwanda from the 6th to the 14th of June.
The Rwanda Cricket Association (RCA) had hosted Botswana, Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda, Nigeria and Rwanda for the tourney.
Botswana’s coach Innocent Chando, said the team did not perform well to their expectations as they lost all their games.
“We lost all our scheduled games and came last in the final standings. The team’s performance was below par,” he said.
When asked on the mood of the players, Chando said: “The mood is just okay, although they are still traumatized by the loss to Rwanda and Nigeria. They are really disappointed and shocked by those losses because they did not expect to score only 29 runs against Rwanda and to lose on the second last ball to Nigeria. The ladies still have to learn to be aggressive because in some instances they failed to be aggressive especially when batting, they failed to put away the bad balls,” Chando noted.
Moreover, Chando noted that the ladies failed to fight until the last ball of the game. He said “This is because sometimes they dropped their heads too early in the match.”
However, Chando noted that despite the losses, they learnt a few things from attending the tournament. He said: “This tournament helped us to know on which areas we need to work on and prepare for the upcoming tournaments.”
“The tournament helped a lot because the girls know the areas we are going to work more on and prepare themselves for upcoming tournaments,” Chando opined. He further added that they managed to observe and learn how other teams play, as this will help them strategize better next time they meet in future events.”
In conclusion, Chando said: “We are preparing for World Cup qualifiers in September and that will be a big tournament for us. We are hoping to improve before and during that tournament so that we can qualify for the next stage of qualifiers and also improve our International Cricket Council rankings.”
