ZIMBABWE women's cricket team took a 1-0 lead in the three-match T20I series after beating Papua New Guinea (PNG) by eight wickets with 14 balls to spare in the opening encounter at Harare Sports Club yesterday.
Lady Chevrons skipper Mary-Anne Musonda steered her ship to victory with an unbeaten 54 off 51 balls together with onsong batter, Modester Mupachikwa who was also unbeaten on a run-a-ball 45 while chasing the visitors' 110/4 in their alloted overs.
After winning the toss, Musonda sent PNG to bat first with the visitors succumbing to vice captain Josephine Nkomo's pace as she ended the innings with three wickets for 19 runs from four overs.
Loreen Tshuma and Francisca Chipare finished their four-over spells but both were denied wickets by the PNG batters while Nomvelo Sibanda and Precious Marange with three overs apiece and Kelis Ndhlovu with two overs all failed to make inroads in the PNG batting line up.
Tanya Ruma top-scored for PNG with 47 runs before she was clean-bowled by Zimbabwe's lone wicket taker Nkomo with two balls remaining in the innings while Pauke Siaka was unbeaten on 33 off 32 balls as PNG totalled 110/4 in 20 overs.
Zimbabwe however, lost opener Ndhlovu early for four runs off the third ball of their chase. Ndhlovu was bowled out by Sibona Jimmy to leave the hosts on 4/1 while Chipo Mugeri-Tiripano departed in similar fashion for four runs after being bowled by Geua Tom after 1.5 overs.
Musonda and Mupachikwa then made it their show taking Zimbabwe to victory with 14 balls remaining.
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