ICC Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup Day 4 Review: Rwanda make history while New Zealand on verge of qualifying for knockouts

Rwanda claimed their famous first win in the ongoing U19 T20 Women's World Cup while New Zealand sealed their second win on Day 4 (Tuesday, January 17) of the tournament being played in South Africa.

In order to increase their prospects of moving on to the Super Six round of the competition, Rwanda defeated Zimbabwe in a critical match. In a partnership of 49, Merveille Uwase (18 from 33) and Cynthia Tuyizere (30 from 44) were cautious but reliable as Rwanda concentrated on keeping their wickets in the opening ten overs.

Gisele Ishimwe, the captain, played aggressively, scoring 34 runs off 23 balls to lead them to a respectable score of 119/8.

They were able to defend the score and register a historic win over their African neighbours Zimbabwe. Henriette Ishimwe was the reason why Rwanda managed to register such a convincing victory by 39 runs as she bagged a hat-trick and claimed four scalps on four consecutive deliveries in the 18th over of Zimbabwe's innings.

This is Rwanda’s first-ever win in a major ICC event and would go down as a victory that their fans will remember for years to follow.

In a much more one sided game, New Zealand faced Ireland and the former was miles ahead of the opposition. Ireland's collapse on a favourable batting surface allowed New Zealand to win easily.

Ireland's batters, who were already struggling after losing captain Amy Hunter to injury, got into troubled waters by losing four wickets during the powerplay overs, two of them as a result of shoddy running between the wickets.

They got bundled out for 74 and never really recovered from such a horrid start. Natasha Codyre, the medium pacer was the most effective of all the New Zealand bowlers with figures of 3/6. 

New Zealand weren't troubled at all while chasing such an easy target. They completed the chase under seven overs which boosted their net run rate a lot. They have set one foot already in the Super Six and would be hoping for another victory in their next game. 

For a better experience: Download the CricTracker app from the IOS App Store and Google Play Store