Chronicle Editor
Brandon Moyo
WOEFUL batting saw the Zimbabwe senior women’s cricket suffer defeat by 78 runs in their opening encounter of the three match One Day International (ODI) cricket series against Thailand at Terdthai Cricket Ground in Bangkok, Thailand yesterday.
After being asked to field first and losing the toss, the Gary Brent-coached Lady Chevrons bowled out the hosts for 154 runs in 43 overs before going on to struggle with the bat as they were wiped out for just 76 runs in 24.1 overs.
Teenage sensation, Kelis Ndhlovu once again put up a stellar performance with the ball for Zimbabwe after taking her maiden ODI five wicket haul. She finished with the figures of 5/22 in nine overs while all-rounder, Josephine Nkomo took three scalps for 29 runs in her seven over spell. The other two wickets that fell were taken by Nomvelo Sibanda and Precious Marange who gave away 14 and 31 runs respectively, both in seven overs.
Thailand skipper, Naruemol Chaiwai top scored for the hosts with an unbeaten 57 runs off 104 deliveries while Nattaya Boochatham fell for 25 runs from 50 balls. Their third leading run getter was Phannita Maya who contributed 17 runs having faced 24 balls.
In their chase, Zimbabwe lost an early wicket of Ndhlovu in the fifth over for five runs off 16 balls. Her opening partner, Sharne Mayers went on to be the team’s leading run getter on the match with a run a ball 24 runs from while Chipo Mugeri-Tiripano fell for 18 runs off 34 deliveries. Two more Lady Chevrons batters, Ashley Ndiraya and Precious Marange managed to cross double figures, scoring 11 and 10 runs respectively.
After Ndhlovu’s splendid performance with the ball, Thailand’s Thipatcha Putthawong came out guns blazing to rip through Zimbabwe’s batting order. She finished with the best bowling figures of 6/6 in 6.1 overs. Suleeporn took two scalps for 13 runs in three overs while Maya and Boochatham took one each to round up Zimbabwe’s innings and start off the series on a high note.
The match was Zimbabwe’s first international assignment of the year and they will be looking to bounce back in the upcoming matches. Brent does not have much time to rectify his team’s mistakes since the second match is scheduled to take place tomorrow while the last one is set Sunday before attention shifts to T20Is. — @brandon_malvin
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