Zimpapers Sports Hub
PAPUA NEW GUINEA women fought gallantly to snatch a one-run win in the super over of their second T20 International against Zimbabwe at Harare Sports Club yesterday.
Zimbabwe stumbled to 119/6 and PNG blew a chance to win it in the final over as they lost two wickets in last two balls and were restricted to 119/6.
PNG then made 7/0 in the super over and restricted the Lady Chevrons to 6/0 in response.
The three-match series is now level 1-1 ahead of the final match at the same venue tomorrow after the hosts won the opener by eight wickets with 14 balls to spare while chasing 111 on Saturday.
On winning the toss, PNG opted to field in what seems to be the match-winning choice so far and the match went on to produce 238 runs, the highest match aggregate involving Zimbabwe and PNG in Women T20 Internationals.
However, the Lady Chevrons will look back at the opportunities they had to secure the series even after being put in to bat.
Having been 101/3 after 16 overs, the Lady Chevrons would have been looking at more than 130 for a total but only two batters stood up to be counted with opener Modester Mupachikwa who topscored with an unbeaten 45 from 50 balls and captain Marry-Anne Musonda, who made 37 from 34 balls, standing out.
Mupachikwa and Musonda were the leading scorers again during Saturday's series opener and the gap between their scores and the rest of the Lady Chevrons batters is a cause of concern for coach Walter Chawaguta ahead of the final T20 World Cup qualifiers this month.
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And when the super over came, they would have been the options for the Lady Chevrons but instead Musonda went in with Kelis Ndhlovu, who had made 13 from nine balls earlier on. Dot balls off the first and last balls of the super over faced by Ndhlovu proved costly in the end.
After 10 overs, Lady Chevrons had made 64/2 while, in response, PNG were 49/2 at the same stage but while the hosts made just 55 for the loss of four wickets in the final 10 overs, the tourists made 70 runs including two fours in the final over.
Zimbabwe conceded 14 runs in the final over bowled by Francisca Chipare, the most they have conceded in the series, and eventually conceded the match and what could have been a series-clinching victory.
The decision to give the 24-year-old right-arm medium pacer the ball in the final over when the Lady Chevrons needed to restrict PNG to 13 runs was problematic as there were other more economic bowlers at that stage.
Chipare's three overs had gone for 22 runs and, at that stage, there were three bowlers with more economic figures available.
Precious Marange had bowled two overs and taken a wicket for just four runs, Loryn Phiri had bowled one over for just three runs while Loreen Shumba's three overs had gone for 14 runs and all three had better figures than Chipare.
