Team St Helena slipped to their first defeat in the ICC World Twenty20 Africa Region Qualifiers today when they were comprehensively beaten by Botswana by 81 runs.
Botswana won the toss and elected to bat. St Helena however, started brightly, restricting the runs and taking the occasional wicket. With fine performances with the ball by all of the bowlers and restricted the score to 109 in 15 overs. However the final five overs saw Botswana reach 144 for five.
St Helena really struggled to find form and were always on the back foot, at one point being 18 in seven overs. The opening batsmen Obey and Belgrove were failing to find the ball and eventually Belgrove was caught for nine and then wickets steadily fell.
Scott Crowie tops scored for St Helena with 13 as St Helena ended 64 all out.
Having played four games in three days, St Helena were struggling with tired muscles and opening bowler Brendan Leo was forced to sit out with a tight muscle.
The team now has a two day break, before playing Mozambique and Namibia on Friday.
In the team talk after todays defeat Scott Crowie acknowledged the effort by the team and said everyone was proud of what had been achieved so far and that this defeat how much as a team we need to develop.
