Another day, another loss for USA Women in Uganda as Rwanda captain Marie Bimenyimana helped her side scrape past with a win by two runs in a sloppy match at Entebbe. 

Photo credit: Cricket Uganda

By Peter Della Penna (Twitter/X @PeterDellaPenna)
 
The USA Women remain in search of their first win at the Victoria T20 Series in Uganda after falling short to Rwanda by two runs on Tuesday at Entebbe. The match went down to the final over as USA pursued a target of 108, but a swing and a miss by Taranum Chopra off the penultimate ball was followed by a three on the final delivery to create the final margin. 
 
USA won the toss and elected to field first as Geetika Kodali and Jivana Aras returned to the USA XI in favor of Lekha Shetty and Gargi Bhogle. Meanwhile Pooja Ganesh missed her third straight match due to an unspecified injury sustained in the first match of the tournament last week against Rwanda. 
 
The match started in overcast conditions and play was eventually halted at 15 for 0 in the fourth over for what turned into a 50-minute delay. However, no overs were reduced when play resumed. Once the shine came out, so did Rwanda’s power as Gisele Ishimwe and Fanny Utagushimaninde both struck boundaries off Kodali in the first over after play resumed. Another four from Utagushimaninde came in the seventh over off Sainavi Kambalapalli when Maahi Madhavan let a simple collection at mid-off go straight past her to turn a dot into four. It was one of many pieces of sloppy fielding that came back to haunt USA in a match where the final margin was a matter of one scoring shot. 
 
USA finally broke through in the eighth over when Taranum Chopra had Ishimwe going back deep in her crease to cut and wound up chopping her bat onto off stump to result in a rare hit wicket dismissal for 20 to make it 41 for 1. Utagushimaninde charged Aditi Chudasama in the following over and was out stumped for 21 to make it 46 for 2. Chudasama struck again in the 11^th when Shakila Niyomuhoza sliced a full ball to Chopra who took a catch diving forward at backward point for a two-ball duck to make it 46 for 3. 
 
But with their opponents down, USA could not strike a knockout blow in the field as Rwanda captain Marie Bimenyimana teamed with Clarisse Uwasse for a 45-run partnership across the next 7.4 overs. Uwasse capitalized after being dropped on 8 off the bowling of Ritu Singh when Chopra took an meandering route to a skied chance and ultimately reached out one-handed to her right but could not hold on. In a match with small margins, USA paid when Uwasse continued to strike her second boundary in Singh’s next over. Meanwhile, Bimenyimana continued to collect sharp ones and twos to keep rotating the strike, finding some rhythm after she struggled through a maiden against Kambalapalli at the start of her innings. The pair also survived a pair of runout chances – Bimenyimana on 16 in the 17^th over when Kambalapalli misfired on a throw from mid-off while Uwasse escaped on 18 in the following over when Kambalapalli once again threw wide from short third. 
 
The partnership finally ended when Ella Claridge completed a sharp stumping standing up to the medium pace of Madhavan after Uwasse overbalanced on a leg side heave and was given out for 19 to make it 91 for 4 with two overs left. Bimenyimana was also stumped for 20 by Claridge five balls later in the 19^th when Chudasama teased her down the track with a failed charge to make it 98 for 5. But the pair of Henriette Ishimwe and Belise Murkatete scratched out nine runs across the final seven balls to take Rwanda to 107 for 5. Henriette finished 7 not out off 5 balls while Murekatete ended 6 not out off 5.
 
Chudasama returned 3 for 15 off three overs to lead USA in the field. Madhavan ended with 1 for 22 off four while Kodali conceded 0 for 22 off her four. Chopra bowled a solid 1 for 13 off three overs but was not brought back to finish her quota. Kambalapalli bowled an outstanding spell for her 0 for 15 off four overs but was undermined by poor fielding behind her. Singh finished with 0 for 13 off two overs as USA’s sixth bowler used. Aras was never given the ball despite being selected as a specialist pace bowler. 
 
Despite a commendable tournament with the ball, Kambalapalli’s lean run with the bat continued in the chase as she fell for 2 in the third over skying a slog off Bimenyimana to Rosine Irera at midwicket in the ring to make it 14 for 1. Fellow opener Pagydyala’s frustrating time at the top of the order also continued on Tuesday as she fell for 12 off 23 balls driving a tame catch to mid-off against left-arm spinner Ruth Uwimana to make it 37 for 2 in the eighth. It could have been even worse for USA as new batter Claridge survived a botched stumping chance on the final ball of Uwimana’s wicket-maiden over. 
 
Isani Vaghela subsequently survived a missed stumping as well off Uwimana on 17 in the 10^th over. But neither Vaghela nor Claridge could make the missed chances come back to haunt Rwanda. Claridge was bowled for 12 in the 13^th over when she backed away attempting to cut through the off side and left her stumps exposed to Bimenyimana to make it 63 for 3. Vaghela fell four balls later at the start of the 14^th for 28 when she drove Uwimana loosely to extra cover where Bimenyimana took a sharp catch diving to her right to make it 65 for 4. 
 
Nikhar Doshi and Chopra then teamed up for a 41-run partnership for the rest of the innings. At a time when USA desperately needed a boundary to keep the required run rate manageable, neither player could reach the rope. They also benefited from missed chances to keep the partnership alive, Chopra put down at mid-on on 4 in the 16^th over before Doshi was dropped twice, on 11 at deep midwicket in the 18^th and once again on a sharp return chance shelled by Henriette on 14 in the 19^th over. 
 
USA also suffered from a scoring error made in the 17^th over when Doshi was credited with just a single despite running a two and no signal of a short run from the on-field umpires. It meant that USA went into the final over believing they still needed 12 to win when in fact that target should have been 11 left to get. It also became consequential ahead of the final two balls of play faced by Chopra. The confusion from the initial scorers was still evident in that they claimed it was Doshi on strike rather than Chopra, a continuation of the error that began in the 17^th over and resulted in the two USA players being reversed when it came to identifying who was on strike by the scorers. Rather than being told they needed five to win and four to tie, the USA pair in the middle believed they still needed six to win off two balls. Chopra wound up swinging and missing at the penultimate ball bowled by Bimenyimana before flicking a three out to deep midwicket to create the final margin. 
 
Chopra was credited as having only scored 20 not out off 22 balls, despite being on strike for five of the six balls in the final over in which she scored eight of USA’s nine runs in the over. Doshi was credited as finishing on 19 not out off 21 balls. 
 
Bimenyimana was a deserved Player of the Match award winner after finishing with 2 for 26 to go with a catch and a vital 20 in the first innings. Uwimana ended with 2 for 13 off four overs including the wicket-maiden in the eighth. Irera bowled an economical spell to end with 0 for 16 off her four overs. 
 
In the afternoon match, Namibia handed Uganda their first loss of the tournament, beating the hosts by four runs. Namibia were bowled out for 81 in 19 overs, but managed to bowl out Uganda for 77 in reply off the final ball of the match. Uganda needed 12 off the final 15 balls, but managed just three singles off their next nine deliveries and entered the final over needing nine runs to win with two wickets in hand. After four runs off the first three balls of the over, three dots followed including a pair of runouts to end play. 
 
USA returns to action on Wednesday against Namibia in the afternoon match of the tournament doubleheader following the morning match scheduled between Uganda and Rwanda.