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Brandon Moyo, Sports Reporter
THE Zimbabwe women’s Under-19 team lost their first match of their preparatory series against their South African counterparts by eight runs at Willowmoore Park B field in Benoni, South Africa on Saturday.

After winning the toss and electing to field first, South Africa posted 151-9 in their 20 overs and the young Lady Chevrons were restricted to 143-8 in 20 overs to lose their first match of the series. The series has five matches.

Kelis Ndhlovu was the star with the ball for Zimbabwe, finishing with figures 4-14 in her four overs and was supported by Danielle Miekle who finished with 2-21 in three overs. Kay Ndiraya took one wicket while the other two wickets that fell were run outs.

Elandri Janse Van Rensburg top scored for the hosts with 28 runs while Simone Lourens and Karabo Meso both scored 21.
In Zimbabwe’s run chase, Ndhlovu took centre stage again as she top scored with 80 runs off just 41 balls. Kelly Ndiraya and Kay Ndiraya were the only other batters to reach double figures for the Young Lady Chevrons, scoring 16 and 15 runs respectively.

Kelis Ndhlovu

Kayla Reyneke and Madison Landsman took three wickets each.
Both Zimbabwe and South Africa are using the series as preparation for the inaugural ICC Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup that will be hosted in South Africa from 14-29 January 2023. The tournament was originally scheduled for December last year but had to be shifted due to Covid-19.

Zimbabwe got automatic qualification to the global showpiece alongside South Africa, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Pakistan, Ireland, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, United States of America and the West Indies. Indonesia, Rwanda, Scotland and the United Arab Emirates booked their places through regional qualifiers. – @brandon_malvin