Four losses for Victoria Pearls

Individual brilliance. Soroti-bred Phiona Kulume was awarded the Player  of the Match for her haul of 6 wickets for 11 runs in the match against Namibia on Saturday evening. PHOTO/COURTESY

What you need to know:

  • Uganda exchange pleasantries with Namibia’s Capricorn Eagles in their three-legged last round-robin match this afternoon.

It’s a tale of two worlds for the Victoria Pearls at the ongoing Capricorn Women’s T20 Tri-Series in Windhoek, Namibia.

Six of Uganda’s bowlers are among the top 10 bowlers but the same cannot be said of their batters.

Only three feature in the top 10 run-getters column with vice-captain Janet Mbabazi standing peerless amongst the three leading runs scorers with 81 runs at an average of 27 runs per innings and strike rate of 85 per cent from her four innings by press time yesterday.

Mbabazi’s unbeaten knock of 42 not out from 36 balls against African heavyweights Zimbabwe earned her the spot and rightfully so. The next two best batters for Uganda are wicketkeeper-cum-opening batter Kevin Awino who has tallied 43 runs at an average 10 and T20 International debutante Phiona Kulume who has garnered 41 runs at 13 per innings.

Meek show
That return with the willow has pretty much summarized Uganda’s stay in the Namib Desert with Uganda’s aggregate of 310 runs after four matches showing that they’re averaging a team score of 77.4 per match which is less than Mbabazi’s total number of runs – 81.

Coach Lawrence Ssematimba – a legend of the game for Uganda in his own right – will not bury his head in the sand with the type of batting displays his ladies have exhibited as he has more than six T20I debutants in the side but will feel he has a plateful to tackle when the team returns home this week and look to continue rebuilding for the looming international season.

The four losses have knocked Uganda out of tomorrow afternoon’s final but Ssematimba and his assistant Lawrence Ssempijja will look at positives from the bowling where the top three wicket takers thus far: 

Mbabazi (10), her captain Consy Aweko (10) and sensational Kulume (8) are all Ugandan – and look to rebuild. 

Kulume picked up the Player of the Match award for her impeccable haul of six wickets for 11 runs against Namibia on Saturday evening unfortunately Uganda could chase down the set target of 69.

Uganda exchange pleasantries with Namibia’s Capricorn Eagles in their three-legged last round-robin match this afternoon.

Capricorn T20 Tri Series

Today | 3.30pm
Namibia     vs.     Uganda 
Uganda's results– Game One
Namibia     90/9     Uganda 78/8
Namibia won by 12 runs
Game Two
Zimbabwe     100/4     Uganda 92/8
Zimbabwe won by 8 runs
Game Three
Zimbabwe     127/5     Uganda 105/6
Zimbabwe won by 22 runs
Game Four
Namibia     68/10     Uganda 40/10
Namibia won by 28 runs