Gaborone — Botswana and Kenya have advanced to the higher level Africa Division 1 Qualifiers which will be held in Entebbe, Uganda from December 7-18.
Botswana advanced to the next level of the competition despite finishing second after losing by nine wickets to Kenya in the 2024 International Cricket Council (ICC) Women's T20 World Cup Africa Division 2 Qualifiers final at the cricket club in Gaborone on Friday.
The competition featured eight teams tournament was hosted by the Botswana Cricket Association (BCA).
Botswana came into the final full of confidence after producing a good performance to beat Sierra Leone by 17 runs in the semifinals. They were also looking to avenge a 111 runs defeat to Kenya in the group stages.
However, the superior Kenya women exerted their dominance on the hosts with quick dismissals of openers Shameela Mosweu and Amantle Mokgotlhe after coach Stanley Timoli's side decided to bat first.
Mosweu was caught by Charity Muthoni of a delivery by Lavender Adiambo in the second over after scoring just five runs, while Mokgotlhe was bowled for naught by Melvin Khagoitsa.
Botswana failed to recover from the poor start and were ultimately all out after 14.2 overs after scoring just 51 runs, with Kenyan bowler Flavia Odhiambo claiming four of their wickets. Facing a low score to chase to win the final, Kenya simply cruised in the second innings.
Their openers Daisy Njoroge and Queentor Abel propelled them to 39 runs before Abel was bowled out by Botswana's Goabilwe Matome in the sixth over.
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Mary Mwangi joined Njoroge at the crease and they completed the simple chase after just 8.1 overs.
Despite the humbling defeat in the final, it was a successful tournament for the hosts after winning three of their five matches.
They thrashed Lesotho by 173 runs and narrowly defeated Malawi by five runs to reach the semifinals.
They then produced a gritty performance to defeat a higher ranked Sierra Leone side in the semifinals.
However, Kenya proved to be a tough opponent for the hosts.
In an interview after the tournament, Botswana coach Timoli said the team managed to achieve its objective of qualifying for the Division 1 Qualifiers.
Timoli however said they would need to improve various aspects of their games before the Uganda tournament in December.
"As much as we lost the final, I am happy with the girls' performance. Qualifying means a lot. Now we need to sit down and improve in a lot of areas, game intelligence, toughness, awareness and calculating of the game.
The fitness is still lacking so we need to improve on those," he said.
Timoli said they were outclassed by Kenya because their players had more experience compared to his players.
"We need to have more games so that catch up in terms of experience.
That is what we are looking forward to do. We need to have friendly matches with other countries," he said.
Meanwhile, the top two teams from the higher level Africa Division 1 Qualifiers.
BOPA
