JAKARTA, NusaBali – The U-19 Women’s National Cricket Team will take part in the World Cup qualifiers at Udayana Field (Unud) on 14-20 May 2024.
Assistant Coach for the U-19 Women’s National Cricket Team, Ni Wayan Sariani or usually called Sari, said that the women’s national team was ready to face these qualifications. Now they continue to practice preparing themselves and undergoing training camp (TC) in Bali.
“Currently, we are focused on facing the U-19 World Cup qualifiers. We are also ready to face our opponents in the qualifying round,” said Sari, Monday (29/4).
In the qualifying round, the U-19 Women’s National Cricket Team will meet Samoa, Fiji and Papua New Guinea. Sari is also optimistic that her team will be able to win. In the first match, the national team faced Samoa. According to Sari, the U-19 National Team has never met Samoa. Even so, he is confident that his students will be able to win.
“Whoever our opponent is, like it or not, we have to win to qualify. Because last year, we also managed to qualify,” said the woman, who also won the gold medal at the 2023 SEA Games in Cambodia.
The Cricket World Cup takes place in 2025 in Thailand. However, qualifications have been carried out since this year. Now they continue to hone their skills. Among them was a practice match against Team Mongolia on 21-24 February 2024. The result was that they defeated Team Mongolia.
“The Mongolian team is still below Indonesia, and that is an asset to compete in the World Cup qualifiers,” said Sari.
After opposing the senior Mongolian Team, the U-19 Women’s National Cricket Team took part in the Kartini Cup on April 21-28. The national team faced teams from a number of provinces in Indonesia. As a result, the national team is in third place. “The champions are the Bali Team and second place is West Java,” explained Sari.
Sari assessed that when the national team faced the Bali Team, they were not optimal because there was no extraordinary pressure. They also look still afraid. After the Kartini Cup, Sari hopes that the national team will be able to perform even better in the future. The U-19 Women’s National Cricket Team has a strength of 18 players, from Jakarta, Banten, East Nusa Tenggara, Papua and Bali. k22