Division Seven of the World Cricket League got underway in Botswana today, the second time Botswana has hosted a WCL tournament.
And the hosts ensured that they got off to a good start with a win over regional rivals Ghana at the Lobatse Cricket Ground. After winning the toss and putting Ghana into bat, the home side soon had their opponents struggling when they were quickly reduced to 10-3 inside the fourth over.
The innings never really recovered from that point, with just four batsman reaching double figures, 26 from Isaac Aboagye the top score. Russell Withey was the pick of the bowlers with 4-24 as Ghana were bowled out for 128.
Botswana had a little bit of a struggle in chasing down the target, but 128 was never going to be enough, and they reached their target in the 40th over to win by three wickets. Faisal Rasheed and Waseem Tajbhay made the significant contributions with 34 and 35 respectively.
Over at the main ground of the BCA Oval, Nigeria chose to bat against Fiji and were bundled out for just 69 in 18.2 overs, Ricky Sharma the only batsman to make double figures. Tukana Tavo, making his first appearance for Fiji since 2010, bowled well to take 5-38 from his nine overs.
Fiji very nearly made an almighty mess of what should have been the simplest of run chases, and lost seven wickets in pursuit of their target. They did eventually win in 22.1 overs.
Next door on the secondary ground of the BCA Oval, Vanuatu made it an East Asia Pacific double with a thumping win over Germany. Batting first after winning the toss, the opening pair of Trevor Langa and Damian Smith put on 96 before Langa was out having scored 55 from 53 balls.
Soon after that, Germany's Bilal Jafar, making his debut, took three wickets in four balls to briefly swing the game the way of the European side, whilst Smith was out shortly afterward with the score on 119-5. Patrick Matautaava scored a quick fire 51 from 48 balls, and Vanuatu were bowled out for 200.
Bowled out they may have been, but 200 was still a competitive score, even more so when Germany collapsed to 37-6. Wasantha de Silva led a recovery of sorts with 31, but that was the only significant contribution to the German innings as they were bowled out for 99 to lose by 101 runs. Niko Unavalu was the pick of the bowlers with 4-21, whilst Matautaava completed a fine all round performance with 3-19.
Vanuatu will be hoping for another big win when they play the hosts tomorrow, whilst Fiji will play Germany and Ghana will play Nigeria.