Mbabazi credits Victoria Pearls teammates
Building a legacy. Mbabazi finished with more than 100 runs and 5 wickets in Nepal. PHOTO/EDDIE CHICCO
What you need to know:
- The enterprising all-rounder continued with her form to Asia where she finished as second best batter with 103 runs in five innings and snared five wickets.
Even after leading 3-0, the senior national women’s cricket team didn’t hit perfection on their Tour of Nepal.
The Victoria Pearls seemed to have put the foot off the pedal as they lost the final two matches by 15 and 33 runs respectively but still emerged 3-2 victors of the Bilateral Twenty20 International Series in Kathmandu.
Whereas it wasn’t a whitewash, the Pearls delighted in their first overseas T20 International triumph in history and it came with the Player of Series’ award to Janet Mbabazi.
The enterprising all-rounder continued with her form to Asia where she finished as second best batter with 103 runs in five innings and snared five wickets.
“It’s a great thing, to be able to do well in Nepal, but I have got to improve on my batting after this Tour,” said Mbabazi, who averaged 20.60 with the bat.
Team effort
“For me, being the MVP, I couldn’t have done it without the support of the entire team, so the award means a lot to all of us.” Mbabazi is doing quite impressively this year. She won the league MVP gong with 141 runs in 10 innings and as best bowler with 18 wickets for Soroti Challengers early last month. Then the Victoria Pearls played the Capricorn T20 Tri-Series against Zimbabwe and hosts Namibia and Mbabazi emerged as best bowler in Windhoek with 11 wickets and economy of 5.60.
What’s her secret to the form? “I think it is practice really, commitment and support, encouragement from coaches and my mates,” she explained. Yet, she is not carried away even if she pocketed 30000 Nepali Rupees (Shs880,000) to add to her Match 1 best player 10000 Nepali Rupees (Shs293,000).
“I don’t think that I did well with the ball, I bowled a lot of extras. Also there were a couple of ladies, who displayed some good cricket like Consy (Aweko) did great with the ball, Jyoti (Pandey) batted really well, throughout the tournament,” she noted.
Nepal’s opener Pandey was the best batter with 119 runs while Uganda’s skipper Aweko topped the bowling charts with nine wickets.
Tournament awards
Player Of The Series: Janet Mbabazi
(UGA) - 103 runs & 5 wickets
Best Bowler:
Consy Aweko (UGA) - 9 wickets
Best Bowler:
Jyoti Pandey (NEP) - 119 runs
