The Victoria Pearls of Uganda started their campaign at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Africa Qualifiers with a one-run loss to neighbours Tanzania after a thrilling encounter between the two teams that went down to the wire.
Having won this year’s Kwibuka and previously reaching the semifinals in the same regional qualifiers two years ago, the ever-improving Tanzanian side was always going to be a tricky team to beat for the Pearls.
But as T20 games go, you don’t call it until it happens; they can be very unpredictable. Also, given Uganda’s pedigree coming into this tournament as one of the highest-ranked teams with Namibia and Zimbabwe, you would think beating Tanzania shouldn’t be that hard for the side.
The encounter ended with Tanzania in 121/7 in their 20 overs, Uganda 120/5 in 20 overs; one run shy of Tanzania’s score and 2 runs shy of a win.
Here is how the Victoria Pearls rate in this game.
TOSS
Uganda won the toss and elected to bowl first, the captain Janet Mbabazi, attributing her choice to the wind. “I want to see the wind effect with the ball,” she said at the toss. Mbabazi thought bowling against the wind would give her side a better chance to limit Tanzania to a chaseable score.
My opinion after watching the Kenya-Rwanda game at this very Oval, where Kenya scored 103/6 (20.0) and Rwanda 106/4 (19.0), plus considering Namibia’s hot climate, I thought that batting first would have been a good choice if you won the toss. One, because the wicket has shown it has some runs on it, so you can score runs, two batting first is less pressure (you are the setting team so you can express yourself), it gives the team the chance to execute their batting plan and if it comes to the worst at least all your batters get a chance to experience the crease.
In fact, Shufaa Mohamedi, the Tanzanian captain, agreed, the HP oval was a batting ground, commenting that even if she had won she would have chosen to bat and her target was 140 runs.
That said, Uganda’s strength is bowling, so you understand if they go for bowling as a default choice.
BOWLING
Uganda’s bowlers gave away 19 extras! That’s too many! It shows the bowling was sloppy in this game and that’s something that needs to be worked on before the next game. Tanzania wanted to score 140 runs on that wicket and Uganda limited them to 121 runs, 19 runs less, I think that was a good fit but could have been better.
Uganda’s bowling was opened by two youngsters, the debutant Naome Amongin and Irene Mutoni who had her debut this year at the Women’s Day Cup. The two young ladies were delivering to the experienced Saum Godfrey Mtae and Neema Pius; it wasn’t going to be a walk in the park for them.
Naome Amongin
It was a bad day in the office for the debutant. Her first ball went for a boundary, and 3 more also went for boundaries; it was baptism by fire for her. In her one over she conceded 17 runs, making it a very expensive over for Uganda and a good one for the Tanzanians since it was even the power play.
Amongin is a good growing bowler, but the choice of her opening is still debatable. One against such a strong side, I don’t think she was ready but on the other hand, if her role is to open, when will she be ready?
Irene Mutonyi
Mutonyi bowled three overs, got a wicket, and conceded 15 runs. Mutonyi was okay, you can see her confidence has grown, and she fearlessly delivers to any batter in front of her, her speed, too, has improved a little, which is good. My problem with her is her lines or rather consistently bowling the good lines; she will have two good deliveries and a wide; in the end it’s like she is undoing her work, she is getting dots and giving away extras at the same time. But good bowling spell for the youngster.
Consy Aweko
Making her 100th T20i appearance for Uganda, she came in earlier than expected. We all know it was because pace had been quite expensive for Uganda and spin was the best way to slow the batters who had gone on a rampage. And evidently her over slowed down things and put Uganda back in the game.
Aweko bowled 4 overs, got a wicket and conceded 15 runs, which is decent; also, off her bowling came runouts. For an experienced bowler like her, I didn’t expect less; I just wish she would concede fewer runs or even zero runs.
Immaculate Nakisuuyi
Like Aweko, Nakisuuyi was introduced early into the bowling attack and for a part-time bowler, she delivered, joined forces with Aweko to slow the run rate, which gave Uganda a fighting chance.
She bowled four overs, conceded 14 runs; decent bowling for a part-timer.
Janet Mbabazi
Interestingly, the Skipper got Uganda a wicket, but overall, she had a very bad bowling spell. She is a batting all-rounder, so has spell shouldn’t be alarming as she is considered a part-time bowler; however, the issue is, she was the most expensive bowler in the side, leaking 29 runs in her 4 overs, including extras, that is 7.25 runs per over.
Stepanie Nampina
Like the captain, she got the side a wicket but her bowling was unimpressive. However, she is a part-time bowler so it’s not alarming but it can improve going forward. She bowled four overs and conceded 28 runs.
Overall, for a team whose strength is bowling, apart from Aweko and Mutonyi in the rest of the bowlers didn’t show up, and it needs to be worked on in the next games if Uganda wants to make it to the finals.
Wicket Keeping
Awino, apart from the one runout chance she missed to execute, was on top of her feet, always quick to react and do the needful. She did a solid job for Uganda to limit the number of runs that were leaking through the field from the batters.
Fielding
Uganda’s fielding was better than usual this time, with players like Malissa Ariokot, Ester Iluko, Irene Mutonyi and Immaculate Nakisuuyi putting in a good shift in the field. But I think the field setting versus the bowler, in some cases, was a mishap that I am hoping the team will look into.
Generally against Tanzania, Uganda had more shabby moments than good ones and I hope that can be worked on as they go to the next two games.
Batting
Batting! Batting! Batting! For Uganda, batting is still an Achilles’ heel; it has moments and has gotten past the line in some cases, but I wouldn’t call it formidable. Against Tanzania, the cracks were wide.
The batting was opened by Esther Illuko and the captain Janet Mbabazi, who have become the usual pair.
Janet Mbabazi
Had a lot of expectations in the skipper’s batting, but to my dismay, she kept sweeping, swinging or blocking; the only time she decided to go for power, she was caught leaving the crease with 8 runs from 18 balls. I don’t know if we call this a bad day in the office for her or the techniques chosen on the day didn’t work well for her. I don’t know but it didn’t look good for her as the batting all-rounder and the skipper, plus it didn’t help the team.
Esther Iloku
Managed to get 49 runs off 55 balls with one boundary. This performance earned her the player of the match award.
Iloku is slowly and surely becoming the anchor man of the team; keeping her wicket means there is that stability all the time (unlike when both strikes lose batters and it like starting afresh) and rotating the strike to give the big hitter a chance to get loose. She did this well, only that she got really worn out from rotating strike; she ended up with lazy shots in the moments before her fall.
The other thing is, the “big hitters” that joined her on the crease didn’t do the hitting like we hoped for; maybe they didn’t know they had to, or bowling was that good, we shall never know, but this made a tired IIoku run some more.
She stayed on the crease for about 16 overs, faced 55 balls and had 49 runs, which is okay, but I am thinking if she could practice and better her power hitting too, and improve on her shot selection and application, she could have more runs from a similar number of balls.
But overall, she did well and was the best batter of the day.
Immaculate Nakisuuyi
Faced 27 balls, scored 22 runs, all in singles and doubles.
Nakisuuyi coming in at 3 after the fall of the skipper was expected; she has the talent, skill and experience. On the crease, she showed intent and the hunger to get runs. The field was sent against her so she figured the boundaries and maxs may not come as easily and she resorted to running between the wickets, which worked with a willing partner on the other end.
With her experience and pedigree, I would have loved to see more creativity to get at least a maximum or two, because Uganda needed runs and clearly between her and IIuko, it came down to her. But overall, she did well.
Rita Musamali
Not out, faced 15 balls, scored 27 runs with three boundaries
At number four, I expected Alako to come do her power, big hitting magic but instead the coaches sent in Musamali. I guess it was because of her ability to run between the wickets and also have some big shots. She made every ball she faced count, exactly what we needed from her. Especially in the last over, when she hit that boundary to give Uganda a little hope of victory.
Overall, the vice-captain gave her best
Stephani Nampiina
Faced 3 balls, got 5 runs, with a boundary
She came in at what we term as crunch time, runs needed in the shortest time possible, because of that pressure, she got run out trying to get another run-off a delivery.
Prosscovia Alako
Faced 2 balls, 5 runs, 1 boundary
Runout trying to get another run off a delivery, but well considering she faced 2 balls, she did well.
As mentioned above, Uganda’s batting is an Achilles heel and needs some serious improvement if Uganda wants to have a good performance at such tournaments with other top teams.