Vanuatu stunned Zimbabwe to kick-off their Women's T20 World Cup Qualifier campaign on Thursday (April 25). They are ranked 30th in the ICC T20I rankings and ended up beating the 12th ranked Zimbabwe side by six wickets. Vanuatu chased down the 62-run target in 16.3 overs and the main architect of their victory was all-rounder Nasimana Navaika who picked up four wickets for just 13 runs and then scored 21 runs in the chase.
Vanessa Vira also bowled well to return with figures of 3/14 as Zimbabwe capitulated to their lowest T20I score - 61 in 13.3 overs after opting to bat first. Only three of their batters could reach double digits with opener Sharne Mayers being the top-scorer with 16 runs. This is the first time Vanuatu faced the team outside of the East Asia Pacific (EAP) region and then ended up beating Zimbabwe.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe Women players struggled completely in the lights and their inexperience playing in the floodlights was visible as they couldn't tackle the slower bowlers of Vanuatu. Not often they have played day-night cricket with floodlights installed in Harare only in July 2023 and that came back to hurt them.
As for Vanuatu, this result is one of the biggest success sporting stories after continuously impressing in the last few months. In September last year, they defeated higher ranked Papua New Guinea for the first time and eventually ended up winning the EAP Qualifier to earn their place in the main Qualifiers.
Among other matches in the Qualifier, Sri Lanka defended 122 runs against Thailand easily while Ireland started their campaign with a comfortable six-wicket win over UAE. Scotland posted 161 runs against Uganda and then bundled them out for just 52 runs.
