11 Feb 2013

Minjex Mokwepa crushed Mall Motors Tau by 10 wickets on Saturday evening to secure a place in the final of Botswana Cricket Association’s (BCA) Thuntsha T20 League.

Mokwepa’s comprehensive victory over Tau at the BCA Oval 1 secured their fourth win of the round-robin stage, which paved way for their progression to the final next week.

The four-team T20 League saw teams playing twice against each other and the top two finishers at the end of the round-robin stage qualifying for the final.

Tau batted first on Saturday, but in a sloppy performance they lost three wickets in the first three overs while scoring just nine runs.

Their dismal evening was summed up when they went all out after 12 overs.

They had scored a meager 26 runs for 10 by the time their innings came to an end, which was the lowest score for a match by a team since the league started last month.

Mokwepa required just 27 runs for victory and they made light work of that by smashing 24 runs in the first over. They duly finished off the match with the second ball of the second over after hitting the target of 27 runs with all their wickets still intact.

Tau’s defeat meant that they have been knocked out of the competition after suffering four losses in five matches.

In another match on Saturday, the resurgent Blue Tree Tshukudu defeated UAE Exchange Nkwe by 31 runs.

 Blue Tree batted first and scored 152 runs for 2 in their 20 overs and Blue Tree skipper and national team player Karabo Motlhanka hit a couple of sixes as his prolific combination with James Moses accumulated many runs for Tshukudu. 

Nkwe had a lot of work to do to overcome Blue Tree's tally of runs.

The combination of Akhlaq Raja and Feroz Gaswala brought them 26 runs in the first three overs before was dismissed.

Gaswala was joined by Shanzaib Khan in batting and they scored a combined 25 runs before Khan got dismissed in the seventh over.

Despite losing five more wickets, Nkwe managed to push the score to 105 runs for 7 after 16 overs.

The match was increasingly getting out of their reach as they required 48 runs from 24 balls to win. They eventually fell short by 39 runs when they lost their tenth wicket in the 18th over after scoring 113 runs and that handed Blue Tree a 39 runs victory. ENDS