17 Nov 2014

Youngster Oratile Kgeresi impressed with stunning bowling performance as Central Deserts beat Northern Deltas by two runs in the Botswana Cricket Association (BCA) ladies T20 tournament.

She claimed seven wickets in the opening match between her team and Northern Deltas at the BCA Oval as the competition kicked-off on Saturday morning, helping Deserts nick victory from a probable losing position.

Deserts were all-out after making just 56 runs in 11 overs, but Oratile stole the show with rampant bowling in the second innings. Deltas won the toss and elected to field first, and their first two bowlers Thapelo Modise and Goabilwe Matome claimed two quick wickets each.

Thapelo broke Deserts’ first partnership, which yielded just 10 runs, by bowling out Barulaganye in the second over. She then bowled out Laura Mophakedi in the fourth over, before Goabilwe bowled out both Laone Mafadzyi and Botho Freeman in the fifth over with Deserts having scored 34 -4.

Deserts never recovered from the sloppy start and were all out after losing five more wickets in the next six overs.

With a simple target of 57 runs to win the match, Deltas got their chase off to a great start with their first partnership between Florence Samanyika and Botho picking 43 runs before it got broken when Florence was caught by Lesedi Nkunyana in the sixth over.

Things then started to go wrong for Deltas as they lost wickets in quick succession.  Oratile commenced her player of the match show by bowling out Goabilwe in the seventh over before catching Thapelo, and bowling out Emang Letswalo and Precious Pebe in quick succession as Deltas batsmen fell like flies.

Laura ran out Ditsala Bodutu to leave Deltas at 51- 7 at the end of the tenth over. They required six more runs only from 60 balls to win the match, but Oratile had other ideas as she bowled out Gofamodimo Loloza and ran-out both Onneile Sibanda and Kaone Batlanang to leave Deltas 54 all-out after 11 overs.

In other matches, Southern Rocks beat Western Sands by one wicket, while Northern Deltas beat Western Sands by 77 runs, and Southern Rocks defeated Central Deserts by 2 runs. The two-week competition involves approximately fifty young girls from BCA’s youth development structures.

Players have been divided into four participating teams which are Southern Rocks, Northern Deltas, Western Sands, and Central Deserts.  Teams play each other in a round-robin format and the top two finishers will meet in the final this Saturday.

BCA secretary, Sumod Damodar said the major objective of staging the tournament was to promote cricket among women. 

“This tournament will provide a suitable foundation for women cricketers to establish a solid foundation, so that our girls can look forward to step up onto the bigger arena in the future,” he said. Additionally he said the competition will serve players with an opportunity to stale a claim for selection into the national teams for forthcoming international tournaments. ENDS