The Victoria Pearls’ first test of night cricket ended in a crushing manner on Tuesday after they got thumped by UAE in their final warm up game that’s preceding their ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Global Qualifiers campaign.
The Pearls who will face Scotland on Thursday in their opening global qualifiers game found no trouble in winning their first warm game when they beat Vanuatu by 35 runs on Sunday, but their first involvement in night cricket saw them fall by 9 wickets to the Global Qualifiers hosts in their final warm up game.
Janet Mbabazi who earned the captaincy duties a couple of weeks ago- after Consy Aweko was relieved of that role- won the toss, and like in the Vanuatu game, decided to go for the bat.
That decision paid off on Sunday, however, against UAE, the Pearls were blown away as early as power play.
Lawrence Seematimba’s girls were reduced to six wickets inside power play, and like its played out many a time, they were unable to post a defendable score. By the time they completed their innings, they had managed a paltry 69/9.
Opening batter Proscovia Alako scored the most runs for Uganda (15), but those came after she’d faced 35 balls. Stephanie Namipiina (14) and opener turned late order batter Kevin Awino (11) got double figures for themselves, but just not enough to do any damage for the opposition.
Those runs were chased under 14 Overs. The Victoria Pearls will now head to the real deal off a harmful result.
With the side seeking a maiden appearance at the World Cup, they will have to dig deep especially with their batting to attain that dream.
They are placed in Group B alongside Sri Lanka, USA, Thailand and Scotland.
After facing the Britons on Thursday, they will stage a meet against USA on Saturday in their second game before facing Thailand and Sri Lanka who are ranked first in this competition.
