TANZANIA Girls have lifted the silverware in the girls' category of the 2025 Federation of East African Secondary Schools Sports Associations (FEASSA) Games' cricket showdown, which concluded in Kakamega, Kenya, last weekend.

The Maisara Musa Shem-led Tanzania Girls gallantly brought their campaign in the inaugural tournament to a close after walloping Kenya Cubs by five wickets in the last match.

The victory made certain of the Tanzania Girls' top-place finish in the showdown's table, as they had amassed the best Net Run Rate of 0.403, boasting three victories and conceding a loss in two ties.

Tanzania Girls, having won the toss and elected to field in the clash, put up a spirited bowling showing to restrict Kenya Cubs to a mere 80/8 in their 20 overs.

Wicket-keeper-cum-batter Nancy Nabwire, who opened the innings, and Tania Angela ended up as the team's batting unit members with a display worth noting in a batting time that witnessed an overall less convincing showing by the tournament hosts.

Nancy scored 21 runs at a strike rate of 42.00, successfully making up for a disappointing one-minute stay that the fellow opening batter, team skipper Milan Zainabu, had faced as she made her way back for duck.

The Milan-led Kenya Cubs kept on dropping wickets as Tanzania Girls stepped up their bowling onslaught, and, even though Tania Angela attempted to stop the skid with another double-digit contribution, there was not much the batting team could do to repel the opponents' pressure.

The middle-order batter scored 21 runs not out at a strike rate of 77.78, helping Kenya Cubs end up 20 runs short of triple digits by the time their batting time came to an end.

Kenya Cubs' figure, moreover, was greatly boosted by 24 extras conceded by Tanzania Girls.

Winfrida Mohammed Hossein and Nzela Daniel Maghembe saw to it that the Tanzania Girls' bowling unit successfully kept Kenya Cubs' batters under wraps, dismissing most of the latter's key performers.

A stellar 3-15 posted by Winfrida and Nzela's 2-17 successfully prevented Kenya Cubs from setting up a challenging target.

Chasing a modest score of 81 runs, Tanzania Girls hardly wasted time, cruising to the win for the loss of five wickets in 17.5 overs.

Key players, Tuliana Essau, Zakia Ally Bewe, and skipper Maisara, put up solid knocks and propelled the batting outfit to the convincing win, seeing the team go down in the games' history as the first-ever cricket tournament's champions.

Tuliana garnered 28 runs at a strike rate of 103.70, Zakia secured 16 runs at a strike rate of 66.67, and Maisara, who opened the innings, chipped in with 12 runs.

Sixteen extras given away by Kenya Cubs, moreover, had Tanzania Girls smoothly cruising to the victory.

Much as Nezarine Divine, Rael Kawira, Faith Rochelle, and Milan garnered a wicket each for Kenya Cubs, their efforts could not turn around their fortunes.

Even though they were level with champions Tanzania Girls on wins and losses, second-placed Kenya Cubs ended up with a slightly inferior 0.167 Net Run Rate to lose out on the top honour.

Bottom-placed Uganda Girls managed to collect a -0590 Net Run Rate, coming out victorious in one outing and suffering loss in three matches.

Cricket has, for the first time, featured in the FEASSSA Games as the game's stakeholders in the East African region opt for collective efforts to develop it from the grassroots.

The cricketers making the Tanzania team were selected from the 2025 UMITASHUMTA T20 School Competition, which was played in Iringa from June 8-13.

Dar es Salaam, Dodoma, Morogoro, and Tanga took part in the 2025 UMITASHUMTA T20 School Competition, which aimed at supporting cricket promotion from the grassroots.