Zimbabwe Under-19 cricket teams in mixed results

Brandon Moyo, Sports Reporter

THE national Under-19 cricket teams, men and women, have produced mixed results in their latest matches of their tour of India where they are playing against different clubs in Mumbai.

On Sunday, the boys Under-19 team won by eight wickets against Omtex ICWC Cricket Institute after two consecutive defeats in their previous fixtures. Their female counterparts were, however, thumped by the same opponents by 96 runs after a run of five straight wins.

In the boys’ match, Zimbabwe bowled out their opponents for 93 runs in 17.1 overs and managed to chase down the target in 12.5 overs, finishing on 94-2 to take home victory after suffering defeats in previous matches.

Mashford Shungu starred with the ball for Zimbabwe taking three wickets for 16 runs in four overs to finish with the best bowling figures for the visitors. Tinodaishe Mushonga finished with figures of 2/5 in three overs, including one maiden while captain Matthew Schonken, Dennis Serima and Calton Takawira all took one wicket each.

With the bat, opening batsman Nathaniel Hlabangana top scored with an unbeaten 55 runs off 40 deliveries while his partner Ryan Kamwemba fell for 30 runs as Zimbabwe comfortably crossed the finish line.

On the other side of Mumbai, the women’s team was thumped by 96 runs by Omtex to lose their first match after five successive wins. Zimbabwe restricted their opponents to 121-5 in 20 overs and were, in their chase, bowled out for just 25 runs in 10 overs.

With ball in hand, Michelle Mavunga and Danielle Meikle were the only ones who took wickets for Zimbabwe, finishing with two and one respectively. The other two wickets that fell were run outs. Yayati Gawade top scored for the hosts with 44 runs while Shraddha Shetty contributed 26 runs.

A total of seven Zimbabwean batters failed to get off the mark with the bat, falling on zero runs. Captain Kelis Ndhlovu top scored with nine runs while Tawananyasha Marumani chipped in with six runs. Mavunga and Kudzai Chigora were the others to score runs, with one and two runs respectively. Unnati Sunil Naik took four wickets for the hosts as they rounded up Zimbabwe’s innings.

Both Zimbabwean teams are using the tours as preparation for the upcoming International Cricket Council (ICC) Under-19 World Cups where they got automatic qualification. The women’s World Cup is next month in South Africa while the men’s event will be held in Sri Lanka in 2024. – @brandon_malvin.