By SHAMAOMA MUSONDA –
MUFULIRA have leapt to the top of the Zambia Cricket Union (ZCU) Copperbelt Girls League after beating Nkana and Ndola A in a triangular mini-league held at Mufulira Cricket Club.
In the first game against Nkana, hosts Mufulira won the toss and elected to field with the visitors scoring just 59 runs all out in 14.4 overs.
Kunda Chilufya was on 18 runs not out with none of the other Nkana batsmen were able to score double figures while the best bowler for Mufulira was Gift Namukwasa with four wickets.
Mufulira batting second and chasing 60 runs, struggled and kept on losing wickets at regular intervals with Tamara Banda top scoring with 13 runs.
The best bowler for Nkana was Martha Mulenga with six wickets but inexperience by other bowlers cost the Kitwe side victory as they gave away too many extras.
In their second match, Mufulira inflicted more pain on winless Ndola A by handing them a 48 run defeat.
Batting first, Mufulira posted 80 runs for three in their allotted 20 overs and saw opener Tamara Banda again top score with 42 runs not out and in reply, Ndola were all out for 32 runs in 10 overs.
In Chingola, visiting Luanshya defeated hosts Nchanga by seven wickets.
Luanshya won the toss and opted to field first and restricted Nchanga to just 37 runs all out in 9.2 overs with none of their batsmen able to score double figures.
The best bowler for Luanshya was Chilufya Chabula with three wickets while Mwaka Kachingwe helped himself to two wickets.
In the ZCU Lusaka Girls’ Development League which entered Week-Four, Makeni Warriors beat Chibolya United by 18 runs in an exciting match.
Makeni won the toss and batted first, scoring 48 runs in 15 overs with Fanny Mulenga top scoring with nine runs while Sheila Phiri was the best bowler for Chibolya with four wickets.
Chibolya could not pass the victory target as they only scored 30 runs all out in 12 overs to lose by 18 runs.
In the second match of the day which was a low scoring, O’Blacks beat Woodlands Stars by six wickets with batsman Rachael Mutuna scoring 13 runs while Chisomo Banda contributed four runs with the best bowler for Woodland Stars being Sandra Phiri who picked three wickets.
Woodlands’ Sandra Phiri top scoring with 10 Runs while Monica Mwelwa registered eight runs while Rachael Mutuna was the best bowler for O’Blacks with three wickets.
Meanwhile in the Copperbelt Cricket Association  (CCA) League, Luanshya Royals A returned to winning ways after beating Chingola’s Athenes-XI by 53 runs in high-scoring match at Bharats Sports Club.
Royals A won the toss and chose to bat first and scored 202 for eight in 30 overs and saw James Zimba score an impressive 65 runs with Vivek Singh weighing-in 52 runs and the best bowlers for Athenes-XI were Niran Patel and Vilu Mistry who both picked up two wickets.
Athenes-XI were all out for 149 runs in 29.2 overs with Mistry Vilu scoring 36 runs while Savan Patel contributed 17 runs while the best bowler for Royals A was Ambuji Kumar with five wickets.
In Chingola, hosts AMSL XI lost to a visiting rampant Nkana by seven wickets.
Nkana won the toss and elected to field first and in their innings, AMSL XI posted an encouraging 192 runs for seven in their allotted 30 overs.
Pradeep Shetty top scored with a knock of 70 runs, Prijesh Vijayan contributed 33 runs while Chirag Patel made 18 runs and Nkana in reply chased down their victory target in 25.2 overs to win by seven wickets.
Satish Reddy top scored with 59 runs, Balaji Durai had 32 runs and Ravi Kumar made 30 runs.