Zimbabwe have high hopes of doing well in this tournament and they begain in the most convincing fashion with a crusing ten wicket victory over China at the AIT ground.

China were put into bat and immediately struggled against the opening attack of Josephine Nkomo and Audrey Mazvishaya - the first ten overs saw just 38 runs scored for the loss of two wickets. When China tried to force the pace in the second half of their innings only Huang Zhuo, with an unbeaten 24, had any real success and they limped to a final tally of 88 after 20 overs.

The Zimbabwe opening pair of Modester Mupachikwa and Chipo Mugeri paced the chase perfectly and were never in any difficulty - picking up lots of singles and twos, and four boundaries between them, they passed their target with ten balls to spare. Mugeri reached her fifty just before the victory was completed, her innings of 51 from 61 balls faced included four boundaries. Mupachikwa was equally impressive, finishing on 33.

For China a most disappointing start to the tournament, while Zimbabwe indicated that they may well have a say in the final stages of the competition.