Wednesday, August 10
Uganda – 136 (45.1/50 ov)
Kenya – 172/9 (50/50 ov)
*Kenya won by 36 runs
Uganda’s Cricket National team, the Cricket Cranes, lost to Kenya on Wednesday at the ongoing third round of the ICC Challenge League B in Jersey.
The Cricket Cranes had limited Kenya to just 172 but failed to knock over a modesty total in turn.
They could only muster 136 all out to fall by 36 runs, their second defeat in the third leg having lost to Jersey in the opener.
The result leaves Uganda third with 18 points before facing Bermuda (August 13) and Hong Kong (August 14) in the remaining games.
The ball is no-longer in Uganda’s court who will not only need to win aggressively in the last two games but also pray that Jersey slip at some stage as well.
A Game of Two Innings!
Laurence Mahatlane’s charges won the loss and fancied their chances to field first at Granville Cricket Ground.
And it looked to be a good decision when Kenya wobbled from 54/2 to 64/4.
Irfan Karim who knocked a patient 63 off 127 was later caught by Fred Achelam as Kenya crawled to 149/6.
Riazat Ali Sha (4-38), Juma Miyagi (3-36) and Franco Nsubuga (0-11) continued to cause Kenya all sorts of problem to eventually finish their innings at 172.
But Uganda got their chase to a poor start when the reliable opener Simon Ssesazi was caught by Eugene Ochieng before getting off the mark.
Ronak Patel (31) tried to steady the ship but lacked a dependable partner to stay on the crease – Arnold Otwani fell for 11, Kenneth Waiswa left for five after facing 10 balls, Dinesh Nakrani taken out with a duck.
After Patel gave away his wicket, Uganda lost two more wickets of Deus Muhumuza and Fred Achelam for nothing!
Riazat Ali Shah tried to give Uganda a fighting stance from the tail, and his 49 off 98, had left Uganda needing 37 from going into the last five overs.
But he was caught by Irfan Karim on the first ball of the 46th over to end Uganda’s renewed hopes.
Table:
- Jersey – 20
- Hong Kong – 19
- Uganda – 18
- Kenya – 11
- Italy – 9
- Bermuda – 1
*Top team advances to next round of qualifiers en-route to 2023 Cricket World Cup in India.
