Rwanda’s U19 women national team skipper, Gisele Ishimwe, is full of confidence that she and her teammates have got enough package to challenge any opponent ahead of the forthcoming ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup in South Africa. Rwanda’s left the country for Johannesburg on Sunday morning where they will continue their final preparations for the highly-anticipated tournament scheduled from January 14-29. Speaking to the media, Ishimwe said that preparations had been good, who are eager to go all out to write a new story of Rwandan cricket during the competition. We’ve had a three-month training, all players are in good shape and are ready to give it their all in this coming World Cup. We have a good group of players who can make a difference any time,” Ishimwe said. “We will play our game as we did in other games, we promise Rwandans that we’ll do our best and make them proud, she added. No pressure Rwanda is pooled in Group B alongside England, Pakistan and Zimbabwe, three countries which have a big history in the cricket game but that doesn’t concern Rwanda’s head coach Leonard Nhamburo who insists her young guns stand equal chances of progressing to the next round of the competition. If you look at names, it is a difficult group but this is the first time every participating county is going to play the U19 World Cup for women. We are all debutants in this tournament,” Nhamburo said. “People are talking about England but they have never played the world cup at that level which means it is new for us all,” he added. The Zimbabwean tactician said his team is under no pressure concerning how far they will reach in the tournament although he insists that her girls are not going to South Africa just to participate but to compete. “We don't want to put much pressure on ourselves by saying we are going to win the tournament. We want to pass the first round then from the super six we look ahead,” he noted. Rwanda will play their first game of the tournament against Pakistan on January 15 before facing Zimbabwe on January 17 and wrapping up against England at the Absa Puk Oval two days later.
