Victoria Pearls start ICC Women’s Emerging Nations Trophy campaign with a loss

The Victoria Pearls Uganda’s women senior cricket team started their ICC Women’s Emerging Nations Trophy campaign with a 15 runs loss against Scotland Women.
The pearls’ first game played at the Terdthai Cricket Ground in Bangkok under a clear and cloudy sky on Thursday morning saw the Victoria pearls asked to bowl first after losing the toss.
The innings started on a good note for the pearls as Consy Aweko dismissed Ailsa Lister on a duck in just the second innings, giving Uganda’s bowling some needed confidence. However, the side’s misfields cost them 27 runs before Sarah Akiteng bowled out Ellen Watson at the end of the power play to give Uganda some hope. The 7th over however, washed away the wicket breakthrough as Uganda gave away 4 extras. For the next 9 overs, Uganda’s poor fielding decisions coupled with some substandard bowling left Uganda on the back foot as they conceded 68 runs managing to pick only one wicket in that interval.
At the start of the 16th over Janet Mbabazi dismissed Megan McColl, leading a bowling recovery for the side that picked 4 wickets within 5 overs to put a break on the cruising Scotland side: limiting them to 115 runs for 9 wickets in their 20 overs.
Janet Mbabazi picking 3 wickets, Consy Aweko, Sarah Akiteng and Immaculate Nakisuuyi picking a wicket each.
Though the bowling had an abysmal spell in the middle overs, the Ugandan side tried to keep it decent giving away 7 extras, 4 less than what their opponents gave away.
In the chase, the pearls got a rude welcome when captain and opening batter Janet Mbabazi was dismissed for an lbw on the second ball, putting a dent in their batting power. Immaculate Nakisuuyi 36 (42) joined Esther Iloku 24 (33) on the crease and together put on a 63 run partnership in 11 overs; that on paper was a decent start to the chase.

Rita Musamali 20(24) not out came in at number 3 joining Nakisuyi, but had an up hill task scoring runs, although all hell broke loose when Nakisuuyi fell in the 13th over when Uganda had 75 runs for 3 wickets needing 42 runs from 42 balls.
The batters that came after all struggled to put on runs, as Uganda slowly lost its bearing eventually losing the game by 15 runs after posting 100 runs for 6 wickets in their 20 overs.
The loss though is a setback for the team but they will hope to bounce back in the next 6 games for a chance to gain some ranking points and also finish in the top 4.
The Victoria pearls are back in action on 21st November 2025 against Namibia at 9am EAT. The ICC Womens Emerging Nations Trophy is a new tournament for the top 8 associate Women Nations and teams that finish top 4 in this tourney will progress to the next elite tourney.