By SHAMAOMA MUSONDA –
RWANDA yesterday ended Zambia’s hopes of winning the Pepsi 2014 International Cricket Council (ICC) Africa Under-19 Division Two tournament with a three wickets win over the hosts in a match played Metropolitan Cricket Club in Lusaka.
This result means that Zambia’s only hope of making it to Division One is by finishing second, a target which is a toll order already going by the form of Rwanda and Tanzania, both having beaten Zambia, have shown.
In yesterday’s match which Zambia needed to win to first catch up with Tanzania and also stop Rwanda, the home side won the toss and elected to bat first but saw their low scoring innings once again affected by poor bowling which saw team giveaway up to 30 extras, 23 of them wides.
Zambia made 74 runs all out in 26.5 overs before they went to bat. And they started well, getting five wickets for 27 runs in eight overs but the target was always huge as the resistance eventually cracked with Rwanda passing the target in 17.5 overs with eight wickets down.
In another game played, Swaziland beat Mozambique by 80 runs but it were centuries by two players that stole the limelight at Lotus cricket club.
Swaziland batted first and made 336 runs all out in 45.1 overs with Tarun Sandeet chalking 141 runs before Mozambique came to but with their captain Francisco Covana hitting 181 runs of his sides’ 256 runs all out.
At the Leopards Hill ground, Tanzania beat Ghana by three wickets with the latter managing just 92 runs all out with the former in reply hitting the target with 94 runs in 14.3 overs with seven wickets down.
Today is rest day with Zambia returning to action tomorrow at Lotus against Mozambique.
Standings
Team                        Points
Rwanda 9
Tanzania 9
Ghana 3
Zambia 3
Swaziland 3
Mozambique 0