I think they’re all unrelated – Gisele and Henriette are both regulars for the full international side which was a good sign for their U19 WC prospects but they’ve outperformed expectations. In a way it’s more encouraging to see good results at U19 as it proves a grassroots youth system is there – many of the upsets at the “grown-up” editions come from teams with little grassroots participation behind them and things often fizzle out.

https://forebears.io/rwanda/surnames

Who knows how accurate these stats are but apparently Ishimwe is only the 30th most common Rwandan surname, used by 1 in 243 people. The most common surnames are Uwimana (1 in 89), Ingabire, Habimana, Jean and Hakizimana (1 in 117) but none of those are in the squad. Several other – mana names though as well as two lots of Uwase (ranked 32nd most common surname) and two times Uwera (not on the ranking list).

Wonder if there is a surname concentration due to the sport developing mainly in certain areas, like how lots of Kenyan players had the same surname as cricket was particularly popular among certain tribes? Having said that, many of the Kenyan players were actually related. One of the Suji brothers, Martin, is the head coach for Rwandan cricket.

They have just walloped West Indies WU19 with no fewer than three Ishimwes in the team. They cannot all be sisters by dint of their ages. No more than one out of Gisele (today’s captain and player-of-the match) and Zurufat could be Henriette “Four-in-Four” Ishimwe’s sister.

Perhaps Ishimwe is a very common name in Rwanda, like Park or Kim in Korea, or Nguyen in Vietnam.

🚨 WORLD CUP UPSET KLAXON 🚨
Rwanda struggled with the bat to reach 71/6 off 18.2 overs (RR: 3.87) against West Indies in the Super 6, with two run-outs and three ducks (two golden and one off six balls which is arguably worse!). Good job they’d already bowled the Windies out for 70 off 16.3 (RR: 4.24) in the first innings so that was enough for a four wicket victory.

Having beaten Zimbabwe in the group stage and (admittedly, fifteen a side so doesn’t really count) Ireland in the warm-ups they’ve had a good World Cup.

My hot tip of Henriette Ishimwe was wicketless today and got a golden duck, so can’t claim much credit on that front. But she did bowl the match’s only maiden and 3 overs for 9 runs was an excellent economy rate. But today the damage came from Sylvia Usabyimana’s 4-0-20-4 and Marie Tumukunde’s 3.3-0-8-4, though it was captain Gisele Ishimwe (apparently no relation) who was player of the match with 31 not out from 53 balls. Only three other batters broke into double figures in the batch, the next best score being 18 by Realeanna Grimmond (who was the only West Indies batter with double figures).

If the tournament had a sensible round robin structure, Rwanda would have one more chance at an upset by playing the only team in their Super 6 group they haven’t faced yet – Ireland, who they’d have a decent shot at beating. However in the ICC’s wisdom, every team in the Super 6 plays every team apart from one, and in Rwanda’s case that’s Ireland. This isn’t totally ridiculous – it is effectively Rwanda and Ireland’s “punishment” for sneaking through in the last qualification slot from their groups, while the group stage winners are given the “reward” of not having to play each other – but it does detract from the competition in my view, particularly because the binned matches are precisely those which you’d expect to be most competitive and therefore the best learning opportunities for developing players. So I hope the ICC won’t be repeating this format. I’ve not viewed the County Championship as “proper” since they moved to a “everyone plays everyone else except….” structure either.

Seren Smale was also playing today and is another headline writer’s dream: a serene innings played at smale’s pace? “Grace, Liberty, Serenity” is definitely motto territory.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/icc-women-s-under-19-t20-world-cup-2022-23-1336137/new-zealand-women-under-19s-vs-rwanda-women-under-19s-super-six-group-2-1336182/full-scorecard

Rwanda gave NZ a scare NZ eventually reaching their target with 99/6 off 16.1 overs. Not a sentence I thought I’d be writing when I started watching cricket and Rwanda didn’t even have any domestic teams, let alone an international one. As ever, the lower-ranked teams seem to do better with the ball than the bat. Must be difficult for their batters to manage the step up when the quality of bowling increases at global tournaments.

Grace and Liberty? Sounds like a national motto.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/icc-women-s-under-19-t20-world-cup-2022-23-1336137/england-women-under-19s-vs-ireland-women-under-19s-super-six-group-2-1336181/full-scorecard

Enjoyed watching Liberty Heap and Grace Scrivens batting for England Women U19s this morning. Promising young Irish players too, given that most of the latter team will still be U19 next time the tournament is held.

Liberty Heap will be great for the headline writers if she continues to score freely.

“Diabolical Liberty!” “Heaps Of Runs”…

Yeah, he was playing for them before coming in as concussion sub.

Having beaten Zimbabwe twice in the warm-up matches, Indonesia have just beaten Zimbabwe again, this time in an “official” match at the U19 World Cup.

Imagine a Test match in Bali sometime in the 2040s might be popular with the Barmy Army. Flipping that round, probably worth it for developing countries with tourist industries to encourage the growth of cricket…

The Ridiculous Moose Cup Powered By Daraz