Tough Sri Lanka hurdle in Pearls’ way

Losing early wickets have become frequent and thereafter too certain for the senior national women’s cricket team at the ongoing ICC Women’s Twenty20 Global Qualifier in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

The Victoria Pearls now paid a huge price for that on Monday evening after they were quickly bowled out for 62 runs in 17.2 overs before opponents Thailand won by nine wickets at the Tolerance Oval on Match Day 3 of Group A action.

“Our girls did not show a fight in batting. We didn’t even complete our overs,” a pretty disappointed coach Lawrence Ssematimba said, sometimes running short of words.

“If we had completed the overs, we would have fought to defend at least 80 runs,” he went on. “We had a bad loss. There was a serious lax from the batters’ commitment,” admitted Ssematimba’s assistant Deus Muhumuza.

The road to the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup due September in Bangladesh seems to be literally over for the Pearls, who have a win and two defeats from three matches.

At a Net Run Rate (NRR) of -2.648, making the top two group positions remains a tall order even if they beat big wigs Sri Lanka in the final pool match at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium this afternoon.

“The next game is against Sri Lanka, the seventh in the world, a team that of course, if you don’t scale up your kind of commitment and fight, it is going to be difficult,” said Muhumuza.

Relieving moments from Uganda’s innings is painful, especially basing on the fact that such feeble scores have become consistent in the Middle East. 

The opening loss of 109 runs after Scotland bowled out Uganda for 52 runs unmasked those frailties quite early last Thursday.

Both matches were night encounters, unlike the eight-wicket win over the USA on Saturday afternoon where Immaculate Nakisuyi and Stephanie Nampiina made a 102-run third-wicket stand.  

However, again, no excuses as other teams have done better either day or night irrespective of the familiarities of conditions under the night lights.

Despite an individual improvement from opener Proscovia Alako with 10 runs off 21 balls, Uganda was still stuck at 21-2 after the opening power play of six overs. Chanida Sutthiruang (2/10) had trapped both Alako and fellow opener Nakisuyi for lbw (leg before wicket) dismissals.

Skipper Janet Mbabazi (14 off 32) and Rita Musamali (24 off 22) attempted to create some stability only for partnerships wither, Thai fielders celebrating a wicket at a time.

Nattaya Boochatham (2/8 in 2.4 overs) and Thipatcha Putthawong (2/7 in three overs) had found it so easy thanks to very little commitment to shots from the Ugandans.

Mbabazi and company have a mountain to climb if they are to have a longer stay in Abu Dhabi. They must beat Sri Lanka but these opponents from South Asia are unbeaten after two matches.

Inoshi Priyadharshani and Kavisha Dilhari with the ball and left-hander Chamari Athapaththu and Nilakshi de Silva with bat have been outstanding in their opening wins over Thailand and Scotland.

Uganda needs a victory of significant batting margin to overturn the NRRR and further hope that Scotland loses its last match to Thailand on Friday. Otherwise, it will be goodbye to the championship  on Wednesday.

2024 ICC WOMEN’S T20 WORLD CUP QUALIFIER

TOURNAMENT FIXTURES

MATCH DAY 3 - WEDNESDAY

GROUP A AT SHEIKH ZAYED CRICKET STADIUM

2pm: Sri Lanka vs. Uganda

6:30pm: Thailand vs. USA

GROUP B AT TOLERANCE OVAL

2pm: Netherlands vs. Zimbabwe

6:30pm: Ireland vs. Vanuatu

TEAM UGANDA - GROUP A RESULTS

Scotland 161/3 Uganda 52/10

(Scotland won by 109 runs)

USA 110/5 Uganda 114/2

(Uganda won by 8 wickets)

Uganda 62/10 Thailand 64/1

(Thailand won by 9 wickets)

WARM-UP MATCHES - RESULTS

Uganda 69/9 UAE 71/1

(UAE won by 9 wickets)

Uganda 119/6 Vanuatu 84/4

(Uganda won by 35 runs)

GROUP A TABLE STANDINGS

Pos      Team              Pld      W        L         T         NR      Pts       NRR

1          Sri Lanka        2          2          0          0          0          4          3.468

2          Scotland         3          2          1          0          0          4          1.710

3          Thailand         2          1          1          0          0          2          -0.822

4          Uganda          3          1          2          0          0          2          -2.648

5          USA               2          0          2          0          0          0          -1.408