Malawi cricket national team hopes to rise on International Cricket Council (ICC) rankings after dominating Mozambique over 14 matches played last week to lift the T20 Kwacha Cup in the ladies’ and men’s categories.
The ICC-sanctioned matches started on Wednesday at Lilongwe Golf Club for the men’s category while the ladies played at St. Andrews International High School in Blantyre.
The men moved to Indian Sports Club for their fifth and sixth matches before winding up at St. Andrews.
Out of the seven T20 matches, Malawi’s ladies won 4 against Mozambique’s three while the men thrashed the visitors 5-1 with one match being washed out because of rain.
Malawi ladies’ Team Manager, Carolyn Behan, said they expect to rise above 45-ranked Mozambique because of the impressive results.
The hosts went into the series ranked 46th in the ladies’ category while in the men’s, Malawi were on position 65 against Mozambique’s 62.
With new rankings expected in the next 10 days, Behan said they had done enough to deserve the rise.
“Statistics are updated on a weekly basis and we will see what happens. We have now finished our international matches for the year. The focus is therefore shifting to high performance training for our men’s and women’s teams, including the under-19 boys team,” she said.
Behan described the ladies’ performance as excellent, saying it marked a great improvement in their game.
“We have met Mozambique twice before and lost. Winning against Mozambique in the Kwacha Cup is a sign of good things to come. We trained intensively for the competition and the results showed. We just need to build on the success,” she said.
Malawi men’s Coach, Mike Haswell, said he maintained his team in the first four games before making changes to give other players a chance.
“We wanted to win the series outright but winning 5-1 was impressive. We expect to improve on our rankings and take it from there,” Haswell said.
