Uliguru stars of Morogoro retained the National Women’s Cricket Club Championship title with eight-wicket win at the tournament ended over the weekend at Butimba Teachers Training College Ground in Mwanza.
Tournament coordinator Hamis Abdallah told the ‘Daily News’ that Uluguru recorded an easy victory in the final by beating Morogoro Stars in the six-team tournament.
Morogoro Stars, who thrashed Arusha Girls with 82 runs in their opening game on Friday, were no match to their sisters from Morogoro. They were the first to bat only to collect 96 runs waiting for a reply from their rivals.
Their top players Tabu Saidi and Malizia Salum, who made 44 and 30 runs respectively against Arusha, who were a pale shadow of themselves in the final. Chasing 97 for victory there was nothing to prevent the defending champions from achieving their desire to win the title for the second consecutive year.
Monica Pascal was once again on target and hit 68 runs in the final in which Uluguru Stars collected 98 runs with only two wickets lost to confirm Morogoro Stars’ collapse. Morogoro Stars’ Nasra Hamza, who got 8 wickets, was awarded the tournament’s Best Player prize, while Monica Pascal with 212 runs from three matches emerged the Best Scorer.
Six-teams took part in the three-day event organized and sponsored by the Tanzania Cricket Association (TCA). They were TCA Girls and TCA Academy Girls both from Dar es Salaam, Morogoro Stars and Uluguru Stars (Morogoro), Arusha Girls and hosts Mwanza.
According to Abdallah, the tournament will select the national U-19 Girls and Senior Women’s teams which will represent the country at the International Cricket Council (ICC) African U-19 Girls tournament and ICC Africa Senior Women tournament in December. Abdallah said that the ICC Africa U-19 Girls event that will feature six countries is scheduled to be held in Dar es Salaam from December 7-9 this year.
The ICC Africa Senior Women tournament will take place in Uganda from December 14-16 with six countries taking part.
By MBONILE BURTON, Tanzania Daily News
