Kenya Women's Cricket Quest for Dominance

The Kenya Women’s Cricket team have qualified for the finals of the ICC 2023 Women T20 World Cup Africa Qualifier – Division 2 tournament that is currently underway in Gaborone, Botswana. A feat achieved by swatting away their opponents to get out of the group stage and the semi-final with a 100% - win record.

Their 6.719 record is the best in the entire tournament that comprises of eight teams, having been grouped against the hosts, Malawi and Lesotho Women. This would also account for Kenya Women’s best performance in ICC T20I events as they bounce back from a four year hiatus, occasioned by Cricket Kenya being put on notice by the International Cricket Council (ICC) coupled with Covid 19 in 2020.

Queentor Abel and Daisy Njoroge have amassed an opening partnership of 380 runs from four innings in the ongoing Qualifier. Photo Credits: Botswana Cricket Association

Moreover, they missed out on the prospect of any competitive Cricket in 2021 by virtue of there being no ICC Africa event for the Ladies to take part in with the trend extending to 2022 where Kenya missed out on the U – 19 Women’s Qualifier in Botswana in by virtue of not meeting Membership criteria.

That means that the last ICC event that the Ladies took part in was the 2019 ICC Women’s Qualifier -Africa took place in Zimbabwe. Kenya’s lone win in that tournament came in the form of a 106 – run win over Sierra Leone. They went on to record a heart-breaking loss to arch nemesis – Uganda, by 4 runs chasing 100 and got bundled out by Namibia 39 runs short of 118 for victory.

Despite the hiatus, Botswana is a familiar hunting ground for Kenya Women, having won 4 – 1 in a Series against the hosts in December 2019. Having already beaten them by a massive 111 runs in the group stage, the sole East African representatives can only pray that the tide keeps turning in their favour as it is not over until the bragging rights are safely tucked away off the busy Thika road Superhighway in Nairobi.

Queentor Abel has picked three out out of four Woman of the Match awards in the ongoing Qualifier. Photo Credits: Botswana Cricket Association

With two half centuries and a ton to her name, Kenya’s opening batter Queentor Abel, who missed out on the Botswana series in 2019 is gunning for the tournament’s M.V.P as she goes into the final topping the batting charts with 225 runs from four innings, a whopping 160.71% strike rate therein, in spite of being dismissed for just 15 runs in the semi-final against Cameroon. Her off spin has also earned her the joint top wicket taker with ten wickets alongside medium pacers Lavendah Idambo and Alice Fillie of Kenya and Sierra Leone, respectively.

Dubbed the tournament favourites by virtue of finding themselves in the spot by (bad) design, Kenya look to wrap up the tournament on a high tomorrow afternoon, both teams having already qualified for the ICC 2023 Women T20 World Cup Africa Qualifier – Division 1 tournament set for Entebbe, Uganda from 7^th – 18^th December.

A journey of so many odds finally takes the team back to familiar territory and incidentally, in the same country where they played their first T20I in December, 2011.