Malta women’s national team win Intercontinental Cup on debut

On Friday, August 26, the Malta women’s national cricket team departed to participate in the Intercontinental Cup in Romania.

Despite only having rejuvenated cricket for women at the beginning of the year, the Malta Cricket Association (MCA) was confident that the squad was ready to compete.

Out of the 13 squad members, only two had ever played the game of cricket before the start of the training camps.

Under the guidance of South African coach Lee Tuck, his ambitious task was to develop and mentor the squad into a team that could compete at international level.

Over an eight-month period the squad was put through a specialized training programme focused on mental strength and conditioning, along with learning the required skills needed to be able to compete at a high level. 

A vast part of the training programme was focused on women’s empowerment through sport and providing women with an opportunity to compete through equality in sport.

On Saturday, despite delayed flights and only three hours sleep, the team took the field in what was to be the first ever women’s T20 international cricket match in the history of Malta cricket.

Having lost the coin toss and sent into bat, Malta’s top order dominated the Romanian bowling attack, posting a respectable score of 105/4 off 20 overs.

With Romania needing 106 for victory, the Malta bowling attacked bowled with precision and discipline, eventually bowling out the opposition for 73 runs in18.5 overs. Giving Malta the victory by 32 runs.

This was to be Malta women’s first victory in their first ever game of international game of cricket.

On Sunday, with two games left, Team Malta set out with one objective, making it two wins out of two. Winning the toss, Romania asked to bat first. With a much-improved batting performance, Team Romania was restricted to 71/6 off their 20 overs through the discipline of the Malta bowlers and the commitment in the field by the team.

It was again Team Malta’s top order that dominated the Romanian bowlers, smashing the ball to all corners of the ground, chasing the down the required runs in only 10.3 overs.

Another dominating performance from the ladies, making it two wins out of two. Malta winning by six wickets.

Into the final match of the series, Malta winning the toss and deciding to have a bowl first, it was again to prove a stubborn batting effort by Romania, eventually being restricted to 84/5 from the 20 overs.

Going into bat Team Malta had one objective, to win quickly.

And quickly they did, chasing down the required runs in only 12.4 overs.

Malta winning comfortably by eight wickets and securing the series with three wins out of three.

This was an exceptional performance, by an exceptional group of women. Proving that hard work, dedication, and determination is all that was needed to achieve what most said was impossible.