Uganda must see off Sierra Leone for semis spot

Victoria Pearls coach Suraj Karavadra is looking to use this morning’s match against Sierra Leone as a dress rehearsal for their probable semifinal against regional queens Zimbabwe on Friday.

But it will be foolhardy for the Ugandans to get ahead of themselves before first taking care of Sierra Leone, who are potential banana skins at this two-week International Cricket Council (ICC) Women’s Twenty20 World Cup Africa Qualifier in Gaborone, Botswana.

Uganda’s women are ranked 18th in the world with Sierra Leone a further 18 places away in 36th place, but Karavadra has been quick to regard the ICC seedings as flawed.

“We haven’t played any international cricket in two years, so for me the whole rankings system is a bit redundant,” said the British-Indian tactician, who has been in this role for four months.

Known outfit
“Everybody knows something about us here. Our style and our big players. But for these smaller teams, they have got many advantages,” Karavadra said.

“They could be having some special players that no one has seen before and we can’t underestimate these sorts of teams. We want to focus on playing the game, hit our KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and deliver the perfect result.”

Zainab Kamara, who snared three wickets against Namibia yesterday, alongside the batting trio of Marie Turay, Aminata Kamara and wicketkeeper Mabinty Sankoh should make Uganda earn their monies and victory in today’s encounter.

For Uganda, the technical team might want to draft in opening batter Damalie Busingye, who is the only player yet to feature in any of the three matches they have played thus far.

Going for the kill
“We only made two changes in the previous game and we want to keep it simple,” Karavadra said.
“We don’t want to be making to many changes to the playing squad because it is working for us. May be one change as per what the technical team decides.

“We want to go hard at the opposition and make early kills. That’s our plan. We need to have our all our team’s departments in good nick before the semifinals.”

Uganda will try and dictate the game right from the onset using its on-song slow bowlers Stephanie Nampiina and Consy Aweko, who have both already picked up Player of Match awards in the wins against Nigeria and Cameroon respectively.

Women’s T20 WC qualifiers

Today- Group B
10.30am: Uganda vs. Sierra Leone
3.30pm: Cameroon vs. Namibia