Zimbabwe's dream of playing in the 2025 ICC Women's Under-19 T20 World Cup was shattered by Nigeria after the latter secured Africa's solitary ticket to the global junior cricket show-piece.
Zimbabwe were up against Nigeria in the final of the Under-19 Women's T20 World Cup Qualifiers in Kigali, Rwanda.
However, the game was abandoned due to rain and Nigeria were adjudged winners on a head-to-head basis.
In the group stages, Zimbabwe suffered a shock one-wicket defeat at the hands of Nigeria, a loss that came back to haunt them in the final.
This would have been Zimbabwe's second appearance at the tournament after they took part in the inaugural ICC Women's Under-19 T20 World Cup in South Africa in 2023.
In South Africa, they qualified by being a full member, however, this time around they had to go through a qualification tournament.
The team coached by Trevor Garwe looked on course to winning the final before the rains conspired to disrupt the proceedings.
Nigeria won the toss and elected to bat first and were restricted to 77/8 in 20 overs.
At the time that the game was called off, Zimbabwe were batting on 19/1 in 2,3 overs.
With the ball in hand, Christina Mutasa and Runyararo Pasipanodya took two wickets apiece for Zimbabwe. Mutasa finished with figures of 2/19 in three overs while Pasipanodya had figures of 2/5 in her two-over spell. Kelis Ndhlovu, Beloved Biza, and Olinder Chare took one wicket each.
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Igbinedion Victory top scored for Nigeria with 23 runs from 18 balls while the only other batter that managed to cross double figures was Kehinde Muhibat Amusa with 18 runs not out off 43 balls.
At the time of the abandonment, Zimbabwe had lost the wicket of Mutasa for five runs off seven balls.
Ndhlovu was unbeaten on eight runs from six balls.
After the tournament, the 15-year-old Biza was named Player of the tournament for her 11 wickets and 156 runs.
The continental tournament featured eight teams who were all competing for the lone ICC U19 Women's T20 World Cup 2025 ticket.
The eight competing teams were divided into two groups. Group A had Kenya, Namibia, Rwanda, and Uganda, while Group B featured Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe.
Nigeria became the 15th team to qualify for the World Cup, joining 10 full-member teams from the inaugural ICC U19 Women's T20 World Cup 2023 in South Africa -- Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and the West Indies.
Tournament hosts Malaysia, Samoa (winners of the East Asia-Pacific regional qualifier), Scotland (winners of the Europe regional qualifier), and the USA, who received automatic qualification as the only team in the Americas region to meet the criteria required for the qualification pathway.
In November 2024, Kuwait, Nepal, Thailand, and hosts United Arab Emirates will compete in a double round-robin format for the 16th and final qualification slot.
