Gaborone — A gritty performance by the local girls in the semi-finals of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Women's T20 World Cup 2024 Africa division qualifiers on Wednesday earned them a spot in the finals.
They beat Sierra Leone by 17 runs. Botswana Cricket Association (BCA) is hosting the eight-team tournament at the BCA Oval in Gaborone.
The local girls posted a fairly defendable score of 131 runs for the loss of seven wickets after winning the toss and deciding to bat first.
Openers Shameela Mosweu, 11 runs and Amantle Mokgotlho,17 runs, set up the team on a steady scoring rate before both were dismissed by Alice Fillie in the fifth and seventh overs.
Laura Mophakedi,14 runs, and Florence Samanyika, 22 runs, maintained the steady rate until Laura got run out, also off a Fillie delivery.
Botswana was then left reeling when Oratile Kgeresi and Goabilwe Matome were dismissed in quick succession in the 14th and 15th overs after facing just eight balls with the team having amassed 85 runs. However, the team managed to regroup and finished with 131 runs.
They then put up a superb bowling and fielding display to restrict their opponents to 114 runs for the loss of five wickets in the second inning.
Matome led the charge by claiming three wickets of Emma Kamara, Celina Bull and Ann Marie Kamara.
Kamara was the first out after being run out Shameela off Matome's delivery in the sixth with Sierra Leone having made 39 runs.
Wicket keeper, Mophakedi then stumped out Fatu Conteh off Shameela's delivery in the ninth over. That disrupted the visitors' momentum.
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Sierra Leone then lost two more wickets in quick succession with Celina run out off a delivery by Goabilwe in the 11th over and Botsogo Mpedi dismissing Marie Turay in the 15th over.
Botswana successfully restricted Sierra Leone to 114 runs, with Shameela claiming another player of the match award.
Botswana will meet Kenya in the final today after Kenya defeated Cameroon by 118 runs in the second semi-final.
Kenya scored 158 runs for the loss of five wickets in the first innings, but they bowled out Cameroon for just 38 runs in the 15th over of the second innings.
Botswana and Kenya will be meeting for the second time in the tournament after they clashed in the group stages.
In that match, Kenya beat Botswana by 111 runs, which was Botswana's only loss in the competition so far.
They recovered from that defeat by crushing Lesotho by 173 runs in the second match before seeing off Malawi by five runs in their last group stage match. BOPA.
BOPA
