Times of Eswatini

T20 series hangs in balance Resilient Mduduzi wins parkrun again

- BY MELUSI MKHABELA BY NTOMBIKAYI­SE GWEBU

MALKERNS – Eswatini’s dream of winning the Men’s Bilateral T20 Internatio­nal five-match series was on the verge of being shattered yesterday.

The team had two games remaining to turn their fortunes around, when this report was compiled. They were expected to compete yesterday afternoon, with one game remaining in the closing ceremony of this series today. Eswatini and Lesotho teams had already competed in three matches, with the 0alkerns Country Club 2val playing host.

In the opening game, local cricketers made an impressive start, securing a victory by scoring 1 runs in overs

Game 1: Eswatini 182/9 - Lesotho 127/9

Eswatini win by 55 runs

Game 2: Eswatini 116/10 - Lesotho 117/4

Lesotho wins by six wickets

Game 3: Eswatini 86/8 - Lesotho 90/2

Lesotho wins by eight wickets

with nine wickets to spare.

9ice-Captain 0elusi µShash’ 0agagula expressed optimism about their performanc­e and the sTuad’s compositio­n, which included several debutants.

DEVELOPMEN­T

³I am hopeful that we will win both remaining matches in order to win the series. I should also say that we have a few new players that debuted in the series, so our sTuad is leaning more to a developmen­t sTuad rather than a strong national team,” he shared.

/esotho’s /ebona /eokaoke attributed their delayed performanc­e start to late arrival in the .ingdom of (swatini, which hindered their acclimatis­ation to the weather conditions, as well as a sTuad that was debuting on the internatio­nal stage.

³The first game we lost because most of the guys here are new to internatio­nal cricket and another issue we had was not having enough time to acclimatis­e to the weather conditions,” he explained.

'espite the challenges, both teams were gearing up for remaining matches with the hope of clinching a win. :ith /esotho in the driving seat, (swatini have much more to prove as they also hold home turf advantage.

MBABANE – Swa]i SloMos $thletics Club’s 0dudu]i 'lamini shone brightly on the course yesterday. 'lamini took home the victory in the edition of the 0babane Parkrun, th

which started and finished at 0babane Club yesterday. He clocked 1 minutes nine seconds ahead of runner-up %ukhosi 'lamini, who raced 1 minutes seconds. 0eanwhile, the winner of the 257th edition 0usawenkho­si 0amba scooped third position after racing 1 .1 minutes. It is worth noting that 'lamini is not new to securing this victory as he was the overall winner on 0arch 1 . In this he outpaced enthusiast­ic runners, clocking 1 minutes and 1 seconds. 'lamini is a regular champion on the trails of the 0babane *olf Course’s weekly challenge.

0eanwhile, *cina 'lamini prevailed in the female category clocking 1. minutes. 'lamini secured position 1 overall out of runners. Her position showed an improvemen­t from the 1

th

place finish in the edition. She

th

was followed by Phiwokuhle %ulunga who crossed the finish line in second position with .11 minutes while /esley )oss completed the top three with . minutes in the km event.

 ?? (Pic: Melusi Mkhabela) ?? The Eswatini national cricket team remain with two matches in the second African Kingdoms Men’s Bilateral T20 Internatio­nal five-match series to clinch victory as they currently trail 2-1.
(Pic: Melusi Mkhabela) The Eswatini national cricket team remain with two matches in the second African Kingdoms Men’s Bilateral T20 Internatio­nal five-match series to clinch victory as they currently trail 2-1.

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