On This Day: Zimbabwe’s Debut
Zimbabwe’s T20 International Debut
On this day, January 5th 2019, at Sparta Cricket Club Ground, Walvis Bay, the Zimbabwe women’s team made their debut in international cricket when they took on Namibia in their first official T20 International.
Captain Mary-Anne Musonda won the toss and invited Yasmeen Khan and the Namibia team to bat first. Adri van der Merwe top scored with 41 and Yasmeen herself scored 20 as Namibia finished with 96/5 from their 20 overs. In a sign of things to come, right-arm seam bowler Josephine Nkomo took 4-12 from her 4 overs.
Opener Mode Mupachikwa (20) and Chipo Mugeri-Tiripano (40) saw to it that Zimbabwe recorded a win in their debut T20 International, by five wickets, January 5th 2019.
Musonda, Nkomo, Mupachikwa and many others from the team on that day have formed the nucleus of the team and have taken that into the ODI arena.
Make it a Double
Roll forward to October 2021 and Mary-Anne Musonda, on the back of her 103 not out, led Zimbabwe to victory in their debut ODI, making them the fourth team in history to achieve the double of debut wins in both T20I and ODI. (New Zealand, Australia and Bangladesh were the previous teams to have achieved this feat.)
Photo: courtesy Zimbabwe Cricket
