By SHAMAOMA MUSONDA –

The Zambia Cricket Union (ZCU) midlands under-19 developmental side had an outing to forget as they were beaten by Lotus and then Rising Stars in the Lusaka Ramadan T20 league.
In the first game, Lotus was all out for 83 runs as they bated first with Nahendra Bhat making 21 runs for the team and in replay Lusaka was all out for just 62 runs to lose by 21 runs.
Misheck Malama top scored with 13 runs while pick of the bowlers for Lotus was Satish Bhati with three wickets.
In their second game, Rising Star batted first and scored 118 runs all out with Lusaka’s Jeshan Desai and Tiaan Pieters standing out as bowlers for each picking four wickets.
In the response to the 118 runs, Lusaka only managed to score 93 runs, all out with Tiaan Pieters top scoring with a knock of 26 runs,
Mohamed Ghodiwala adding 15 and Safyan Essa contributing 13 runs to lose by 25 runs.
In the other game, Umukate was on fire beating Legacy by 61 runs.
Umukate batting first posted 181 runs in their 20 overs with Legacy’s Tarun Patel and Deepak Siroya ach getting two wickets.
And in the run chase, Legacy was all out for 120 runs with Shubham Jain coming out as best batsman with 23 runs while Tarun Patel contributed 15 runs.
Meanwhile, in the Copperbelt 50 overs under 19 league, there were wins for Kitwe’s Red Force, Luanshya’s Roan Super Kings and Ndola’s Kansenshi Stars.
In Kitwe in a game played at Nkana Cricket Club, Red Force beat
Ndola’s Ndeke Stars by a whopping 108 runs in a match that Red Force were all out for 148 runs in 41.5 overs.
Ndeke Stars batting second were bowled cheaply for 40 runs in 12 overs with none of their batsmen able to score double figure.
In Luanshya, unbeaten Roan Super Kings beat Mufulira’s Green Wanderers by eight wickets after Green Wanderers batted first and were all out for 91 runs in 25 overs with Roan response hitting the victory target in just 12.4 overs with James Chembo, an opener, on 36 runs not out and Chimya Chilekwa also on 16 runs not out.
In Chingola, in a game played at Nchanga Cricket Club, hosts Kabundi Stars lost to visiting Ndola’s Kansenshi Stars by eight wickets.
Kabundi Stars batted first on a pitch offering variable bounce, their batsmen struggled to score runs as they were peppered with short pitched balls and were all out for 55 runs in 18 overs and Kansenshi Stars batting second reached their victory target in 11.5 overs.