By ELIAS CHIPEPO –
THE battle for supremacy to win the Zambia Cricket Union (ZCU) Girls league title has become a two horse race between Luanshya Royals and Mufulira, who both recorded wins in their respective matches.
Luanshya defeated hosts Nkana by a 90 run margin in a game played at Nkana Cricket Club at the weekend. The visitors won the toss and opted to bat first and they scored 118 all in 20.4 overs with Tina Bwalya top scoring with 32 runs while Chilufya Chabula made 14 runs.
Some wayward bowling by the Nkana bowlers gifted Luanshya with a lot of extras and pick of the Nkana bowlers was Josephine Mumba with three wickets.
Nkana batting second suffered a batting collapse and were all out for 28 runs in 10.2 overs with none of their batsmen able to score double figures. Brenda Nampasa scored nine runs with eight other Nkana batsmen departing without scoring. The best bowler for Luanshya was Jean Chabula who took five wickets.
In Chingola, Mufulira defeated their hosts Nchanga by eight wickets after winning the toss and elected to bat first scoring 57 runs all out in 19.2 overs. Opener Beatrice top scored with 15 runs, while pick of the bowlers for Mufulira were Barbara Kalenga and Esther Makoma who both picked up three wickets.
Mufulira, batting second, easily reached their victory target in 12.2 overs, Barbara Kalenga top scored with 14 runs while Foster Mwansa was unbeaten on 13 runs.
Winless Ndola A are set to get the wooden spoon as their woes continued.
Meanwhile, in the Lusaka Girls Development league played at Libala High School ground, there were wins for Makeni Warriors and Chibolya United.
In the first match, Makeni Warriors won the toss and decided to bat first and scored 66 runs in 15 overs. Rachael Mutuna top scored with a knock of 19 runs. The best bowler for O Blacks was Mary Siamachila who got three hat trick wickets.
In the second innings of the match, O Blacks could not manage to pass the score as their middle older batsmen failed to tick and only scored 39 runs all out in 14 overs. Memory Phiri was the only one to score the double figures of 11 runs.
The second match of the weekend saw Chibolya United win the toss and opted to bat first and were all out for 39 runs and Lolanji Namukwanya was the highest scorer with eight runs.
Woodlands Stars batting second were all out for 37 runs to lose by two runs.