By BRIAN MWILA –

THE Zambia Under-19 cricket team at the weekend warmed up for the ICC Africa Division Two qualifying tournament with a five wicket loss at the hands of Leopards Hill Senior Cricket side.

The junior national cricket team was using the preparatory match to fine-tune ahead of this weekend’s Pepsi ICC Africa Division 2 under–19 tournament to be played in Lusaka.

The game played at Leopards Hill Cricket Club, one of the venues for the tournament, saw the Zambia under–19 national team winning the toss and opting to bat first.

In their innings, they posted 200 runs for eight wickets in 50 overs will all the top order batsmen showing impressive form with the bat.

Opening batsman Musonda Yambayamba top scored for the junior national team with a knock of 41 runs and saw his opening partner Mario Nithyanath weighing in with 35 runs while Tristan De Wet made 31 while captain Chetan Reddy and Usher Simwinga contributed 30 and 12 runs respectively.

Pick of the bowlers for Leopards Hill Cricket Club was Javid Patel who took two wickets for 28 runs.

Leopards Hill Cricket Club batting second, raced to their victory target in just 25 overs.

Zakir Patel hit an amazing 68 runs while Javid Patel went past the half century mark.

The best bowlers for the under–19 national team were Kanswe Omala and Misheck Malama with two wickets apiece.

Despite the loss, the junior team, did put up an impressive performance against the more experienced and senior opponents.