14 Apr 2013

Botswana won a playoff match against Fiji by three wickets on Saturday to come third at the Pepsi International Cricket Council (ICC) WCL Division 7 Tournament.

The week-long competition came to an end at the Cricket Oval in Gaborone with Nigeria winning it by defeating Vanuatu by six wickets in the final. Both countries progressed to the ICC WCL Division 6 Tournament in the United Kingdom later this year.

Finishing third meant that Botswana missed out on its objective of reaching the ICC WCL Division 6 Tournament, however head-coach Arjun Menon expressed satisfaction at the way his young team applied itself.

“We fielded a young team with many new and inexperienced players. There were moments of inexperience from us in the tournament, which cost us a chance to reach the final. But I believe we played to our full potential,” said Menon.

Botswana began the tournament well by defeating Ghana by three wickets in the first match of the round-robin.

However, a bad fielding performance against Vanuatu in the second match saw the hosts lose by 23 runs. In the third match Botswana succumbed to a massive 171 run defeat to Nigeria.

The team recovered to force a tie of 212 runs with Germany before beating Fiji by 22 runs in the last match to qualify for the third/fourth place playoffs.

Menon was also impressed with his team’s bowling throughout the tournament, but admitted that the batting was not up to scratch. He also observed that his team failed to field well compared to Nigeria and Vanuatu.

“It was difficult to beat Nigeria because they fielded well. We should improve domestic cricket by having regular competitions throughout the year. That will expose our players to competition and the level would go up,” said the coach.

Fiji batted first on Saturday but solid bowling from Botswana’s Russel Whithey and Hasantha Mudiyanselage restricted Fiji to a low run scoring rate in the first 20 overs.

Mudiyanselage claimed three wickets and was elected man-of-the-match by the umpires.

However, after Fiji lost their seventh wicket in the 20th over Noa Acawei came on to partner Serove Ravoka and the pair started scoring runs that increased Fiji’s tally to 113 until Acawei was dismissed in the 29th over when Feroze Esaack caught his high ball.

That broke Fiji’s strongest partnership on the day and they finished their inning on 141 all out after 35 overs.

Botswana chased a target of 142 runs to win the match when their turn to bat arrived, and they started the chase strongly with a good run scoring rate of around 4.5 runs per over in the first 10 overs with Saad Mchyuddin and Karabo Motlhanka batting.

The local team appeared to be in disarray when they lost Motlhanka, captain Karabo Modise and Mchyuddin’s wickets in quick succession between the 10th and the 16 overs.

Nevertheless, a partnership between Wassem Tajbhay and Nabil Masters forged in the 22nd over with Botswana’s tally at 104 for 7 managed to score the required runs that secured victory for the hosts.

Botswana Cricket Association (BCA) secretary for publicity and fixtures, Sumod Damodar said the competition went well.

Damodar said Botswana was pleased to have had the opportunity to host an international tournament.

“It brought us international exposure and offered local cricket more prospects and opportunities,” he said. ENDS