Henriette Therese Ishimwe (born 14 October 2003) is a Rwandan cricketing

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are cons ...

who plays for the women's national cricket team as a right-arm medium pace bowler and right handed batter.

Domestic career

At the domestic level, Ishimwe plays for the Indatwa Hampshire Cricket Club.

International career

2019

On 26 June 2019, Ishimwe made her

Women's Twenty20 International Women's Twenty20 international (WT20I) is the shortest form of women's international cricket. A women's Twenty20 international is a 20 overs-per-side cricket match between two of the International Cricket Council (ICC) members. The very firs ...

(WT20I) debuts for Rwanda against

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

at the

National Stadium Many countries have a national sport stadium, which typically serves as the primary or exclusive home for one or more of a country's national representative sports teams. The term is most often used in reference to an association football ...

Abuja Abuja (; , ) is the capital city of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, strategically situated at the geographic midpoint of the country within the Federal Capital Territory (Nigeria), Federal Capital Territory (FCT). As the seat of the Federal G ...

, Nigeria, in the first match of a bilateral tour of Nigeria. The match was also both teams' first ever WT20I. Ishemwe played in all five matches of the series, including the fourth match, in which Rwanda racked up its first WT20I victory, by five wickets. Rwanda's and Ishimwe's next WT20Is were during the ICC Women's Qualifier Africa in

Harare Harare ( ), formerly Salisbury, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of , a population of 1,849,600 as of the 2022 Zimbabwe census, 2022 census and an estimated 2,487,209 people in its metrop ...

, Zimbabwe, in May 2019. In Rwanda's first match of that tournament, against Nigeria, Ishimwe top scored with 27 in 21 balls; she was awarded

player of the match In team sport, a player of the match award (also known as man of the match or woman of the match) is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chose ...

, which her team won by 37 runs. Three days later, against

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

, she again top scored for her team, with 48 in 40 balls; Rwanda won that match by just one wicket with only three balls remaining, and Ishimwe was player of the match for the second time in a row. In Rwanda's fourth match, against

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

, she top scored for her team yet again, with 21 runs in 17 balls, and took 2/20, but Tanzania won the match by 38 runs. In June 2019, Ishimwe took the field for Rwanda in the annual Kwibuka Women's T20 Tournament, in

Kigali Kigali () is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Rwanda. It is near the nation's geographic centre in a region of rolling hills, with a series of valleys and ridges joined by steep slopes. As a primate city, Kigali is a relativ ...

, Rwanda. Her best performance in that tournament was during Rwanda's match against Tanzania, in which she took 2/25 and was involved in running out two Tanzanian batters, but again Tanzania won the match, this time by 14 runs. In September 2019, Ishimwe played in a bilateral tour of Rwanda by Nigeria. Her best performance in that series was 44 from 45 balls in the fourth match, but although that was the top score for the match, Nigeria emerged as the winner, by just one run.

2021–present

Following a lengthy hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic, Rwanda and Ishimwe resumed their participation in international cricket in June 2021, when Rwanda again hosted the Kwibuka Women's T20 Tournament. On 9 June 2021, in the team's match against Nigeria, Ishimwe starred with 24 in 23 balls and 2/5, and again was presented with the player of the match award. Rwanda won the match by 6 runs. The following day, against

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

, Ishimwe achieved her best bowling figures of the tournament, with 3/22, but Kenya won the match, by 25 runs. Rwanda finished the tournament in third place, and Ishimwe was named in the team of the tournament. The second and final tournament contested by Rwanda in 2021 was the ICC Women's T20 World Cup Africa Qualifier, held in

Gaborone Gaborone ( , , ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Botswana, largest city of Botswana, with a population of 246,325 based on the 2022 census, about 10% of the total population of Botswana. Its metropolitan area is home to 534, ...

, Botswana. Ishimwe's best bowling performance in that tournament was on 12 September 2021, in a match against

Eswatini Eswatini, formally the Kingdom of Eswatini, also known by its former official names Swaziland and the Kingdom of Swaziland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by South Africa on all sides except the northeast, where i ...

in which her figures were 3/2. Rwanda won that match by 185 runs. Two days later, against

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

, Ishimwe took 2/11, top scored for her team with 19 runs, and was awarded player of the match, which Rwanda won by three wickets. Rwanda finished the tournament in third place in Group A. In March/April 2022, Rwanda and Ishimwe contested their first tournament for that year, the 2022 Nigeria Invitational Women's T20I Tournament, held in

Lagos Lagos ( ; ), or Lagos City, is a large metropolitan city in southwestern Nigeria. With an upper population estimated above 21 million dwellers, it is the largest city in Nigeria, the most populous urban area on the African continent, and on ...

. Ishimwe's best performance in the tournament was in Rwanda's match against

Gambia The Gambia, officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. Geographically, The Gambia is the List of African countries by area, smallest country in continental Africa; it is surrounded by Senegal on all sides except for ...

, in which she top scored with 23*. Rwanda won that match by 10 wickets, and finished second in the tournament. Meanwhile, in February 2022, Ishimwe was recruited to play in the privately run

2022 FairBreak Invitational T20 The 2022 FairBreak Invitational T20 was a women's Twenty20 cricket competition which took place from 4 to 15 May 2022 in Dubai. The tournament, sanctioned by the ICC, was privately-run by FairBreak Global, a company that aims to promote gender ...

Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

, United Arab Emirates. She was allocated to the Barmy Army team. In Barmy Army's first match, against Spirit on 5 May 2022, she caused a sensation, by bowling Spirit captain and recent

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

winner Nicola Carey with her first ball of the tournament, and, later, by participating in a "wily run-out" of Thai player

Nattaya Boochatham Nattaya Boochatham ( Thai:นาตยา บูชาธรรม, born 3 December 1986) is a Thai cricketer who plays for the Thailand women's national cricket team as an all-rounder. Career Boochatham was a member of the Thailand team in th ...

. The following day, against Falcons, she deflected a caught and bowled chance from another

winner, Danni Wyatt, into another run-out, of the non-striker, Sri Lanka captain

Chamari Athapaththu Atapattu Mudiyanselage Chamari Jayangani Kumari Athapaththu (born 9 February 1990, also known as Chamari Athapaththu) is a Sri Lankan cricketer and the current captain of the women's Twenty20 International team of Sri Lanka. Chamari was the ten ...

, who had scored an unbeaten century in Falcons' first match.

References

External links