Dubai stage beckons for Victoria Pearls

Uganda’s teams love struggles. They are sometimes inferior in contests, attempting a script similar to David’s victory over Goliath in the Bible.

But most of the other times, it is Uganda playing itself into a spot of bother, either narrowly surviving to win or inevitably choking in the pit.

Had it not been the fans beyond the rope at the Airport end at Entebbe Oval, the senior national women’s team had no further destiny at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Africa Finals on Saturday.

The Victoria Pearls displayed lack of self-belief for long and it took a charge from vocal fans to rally behind to a 10-run semifinal win over Tanzania which coast them to next year’s ICC Women’s T20 Global World Cup Qualifier set to in Dubai, UAE.

“We are grateful for their efforts. The fans never left us out. We will go with you to Dubai, thank you for bringing us this far,” admitted Uganda’s skipper Consy Aweko.

“We are happy that we are going back to the Global Qualifiers for the second time,” she said. Coach Lawrence Ssematimba’s team was agonisingly ice cold majority of the time and were almost buried early when Tanzania’s captain Pius Neema won the toss and stuck in her opponents.

For all the previous three matches, Aweko had won the toss and opted to field first. The change in proceedings exposed Uganda: the scoreboard reading 5-3 after 4.2 overs as Kevin Awino, Proscovia Alako and Janet Mbabazi had no answers to pace bowling from Perice Kamunya (2/10) and Agnes Qwele (1/4).

At that moment, the Uganda dugout went numb but fans particularly cricket coaches Sadam Oyaga, Ivan Kakande and Yusuf Nanga kept encouraging the new batters Stephannie Nampiina and Rita Musamali at the crease.

That pair was charged up to yield a recovery stand of 89 runs, Nampiina departing with a half-century of 51 runs off 53 balls on the fourth ball of the 20th over while Musamali made an unbeaten 35 off 48 to coast to a fairly safe 99-4.

When Uganda got to defend their total, the poor body language of Aweko and company got to the nerves of the home fans as misfielding inside the 30-yard circle offered Tanzania’s openers Saum Mtae (35 off 40) and Fatuma Kibasu (12 off 21) a stand of 31 runs off 44 balls.

Youngster Lorna Anyait in particular was struggling in the field but she got the first breakthrough (1/18), bowling out Kibasu at 7.2 overs. 

Mbabazi (3/14) then had Monica Pascal (15 off 19) caught at 12.2 overs before Mtae, who had been dropped four times, was run-out by wicket-keeper Awino to leave the score at 67-3 after 14.4 overs.

At that stage, Tanzania needed 33 runs to win from the last 32 balls. But with the Uganda field believing, Musamali oozed a clinical spell of 3/11 in three overs, Tanzania losing the next six wickets for 22 runs.

“It’s happened. Just a small mistake. We fell down in the middle order with the batting,” with wet eyes, Neema said. Uganda advanced to Dubai in company of Zimbabwe who had put Namibia to the sword, with a 64-run victory in the first semifinal.

This will be the second time in five years that Uganda will be competing at this Global Qualifier, after the 2018 Netherlands edition.

A total 10 teams will meet in Dubai with the top two slots available to the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup set to be held in Bangladesh in September.

2023 ICC WOMEN’S T20 WORLD CUP AFRICA FINALS

SEMIFINAL RESULTS

Zimbabwe 150/6 Namibia 64/10

(Zimbabwe won by 64 runs)

Uganda 99/4 Tanzania 89/10

(Uganda won by 10 runs)