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Brandon Moyo, [email protected]

THE Zimbabwe senior women’s national cricket team held their nerves to register a two-wicket win, to take a 2-0 unassailable lead in their three-match One Day International (ODI) series against visiting Papua New Guinea at Harare Sports Club yesterday.

The Lady Chevrons have now sealed the series with a game left.

Zimbabwe, who are using the series as part of their preparations for the upcoming International Cricket Council (ICC) Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifiers in the Emirates in April – produced a good bowling performance before player of the match, Modester Mupachikwa saved the batting innings following a collapse in the middle stages.

Zimbabwe won the toss and elected to field first and they bowled out Papua New Guinea for just 125 runs in 35,4 overs before going on to chase down the target in 42,3 overs.

Modester Mupachikwa

The Lady Chevrons made three changes to the team that played in the series opener on Sunday. Francisca Chipare, Kudzai Chigora and Pellagia Mujaji came in for Chipo Mugeri-Tiripano, Audrey Mazvishaya and Nomvelo Sibanda.

Vice-captain, Josephine Nkomo and Chipare led from the front with the ball. In her eight-over spell, Nkomo finished with impressive figures of 3/18, surpassing her previous best of 3/25. Her three scalps also saw her leapfrog Kelis Ndhlovu to be Zimbabwe’s leading wicket-taker in ODIs with 15. 

Ndhlovu has 14 wickets in the longer version of the game.

Chipare, in 6, 4 overs finished with figures of 3/15, which were also her best numbers in women’s ODIs. Previously, she had not taken a wicket in six ODI innings. Teenager Kudzai Chigora claimed two scalps for 20 runs in five overs.

In their chase, the Lady Chevrons found themselves in a scare, losing three wickets for 12 runs in a space of eight overs between the 20th and 28th over which left them on 78/6. Watching wickets fall on the other end, Mupachikwa managed to keep the innings intact with a fine half-century, sealing off the game and series.

 The opening batsman batted out the innings with an unbeaten 57 runs off 107 balls while the skipper, Mary-Anne Musonda fell for 19 runs from 36 balls. The only other Lady Chevrons batter that managed to cross double figures was Loryn Phiri with 12 runs from 43 balls. Three batters fell for ducks. Vicky Araa was the star with the ball for the visitors, with a brilliant spell of 4/19 in nine overs while Henao Thomas picked up three wickets for 30 runs in 8,3 overs.

Speaking after the game, Mupachikwa said there were pressure moments towards the end of their innings but they never lost hope and they stuck to their plan.

The series finale is scheduled for tomorrow at the same venue. 

After the ODIs, the two teams will play three T20Is at the same venue.