Zimbabwe humble Capricorn Eagles by nine wickets

first game as they outperformed Namibia in the fifth match of the ongoing Capricorn Tri-Nation series by nine wickets on Saturday, April 23.

Zimbabwe won the toss again but chose to field this time around. Capricorn Eagles lost opener Sune Wittmann on the third delivery of the third over as she mistimed a pull shot and ended up just top-edging it to the wicket-keeper. Adri van der Merwe, who came to bat at number three, couldn't get her eye in either, as left-arm seamer Nomvelo Sibanda trapped her right in front on the first ball of the fourth over.

Jurriene Diergaardt, who had steered Namibia home in the last game against Zimbabwe, also fell in the seventh over in an attempt to break the shackles. With three batters back in the dugout, the Namibian batters needed to avoid rash shots and dig in. But that didn't happen.

They kept going for ambitious shots and kept getting out. With their lack of application, they were soon reduced to 6/26 in 11.3 overs and were in doldrums. Skipper Irene van Zyl and Edelle van Zyl got together in the middle and tried to weather the storm.

But the pressure of posting a respectable total on the board got to the skipper as she lost her wicket while attempting a slog sweep against Anesu Mushangwe in the 16th over. The innings folded pretty quickly for Namibia as soon as their skipper departed and they eventually got bowled out for a paltry 41 in just 17 overs. Josephine Nkomo bowled well and was the wrecker-in-chief for Zimbabwe, as she bagged a four-fer while conceding only seven runs in her four over spell.

In pursuit of 42, the left-handed opening duo of Chipo Mugeri-Tiripano and Kelis Ndlovu showed aggressive intent right from ball one and got their side off to a good start. While Ndlovu fell at an individual score of 11 in an attempt to finish it off in a jiffy, Tiripano didn't. Tiripano scored an unbeaten 28* off 20 balls, including four fours and one maximum, and took her team to a resounding nine wicket win.

Brief Scores:

Namibia: 41 all out in 17 overs (Jurriene Diergaardt 9, Josephine Nkomo 4/7) lost to Zimbabwe 45/1 in 6.3 overs (Chipo Mugeri-Tiripano 28*, Victoria Hamunyela 1/25) by nine wickets POTM: Josephine Nkomo