Ahead of the ICC U19 Girls World Cup Qualifiers due in Kigali, Rwanda between 19th August and 2nd September, the Baby Victoria Pearls have entered residential camp.
The side consisting of 15 players entered camp at the Santa Maria Hotel in Entebbe on Sunday, and will be residents there for the entirety of this week.
As part of preparations for their World Cup qualifying campaign, the side coached by Yusuf Nanga will play trial games against the national senior women’s team, the Victoria Pearls. Two such games happened on Monday at the Entebbe Cricket Oval.
Immaculate Nandera and Irene Mutoni continue to impress with the ball. The two were some of the best performers for Uganda against Rwanda in the bilateral series that ended a fortnight ago at Lugogo. The duo each picked three wickets across the two games on Monday.
Asumin Akurut registered herself 103 runs- the most by any player- during the bilateral series; she’s continued to show signs of consistency. On Monday, she scored 23 runs in one of the games.
Malisa Ariokot and Lorna Anyait will be the players most Ugandans will be looking forward to watching though. The pair-now a mainstay at the senior team- are some of the experienced players in the team.
Ariokot scored a combined 51 runs on Monday. She will be expected to lead the batting line in Rwanda where Uganda will compete against 13 other nations including Kenya, Tanzania, Lesotho, Mozambique, Nigeria, Ghana, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Eswatini, Cameroon, Botswana, Namibia and hosts Rwanda for a place in next year’s U19 World Cup that will be held in Malaysia.
Uganda finished fourth in 2022 which was the inaugural edition. They will be looking to go a step higher come the Qualifiers.
The Baby Victoria Pearls will start their campaign against arch rivals Kenya on Wednesday 21st at the IPRC Oval.
