Saturday, July 29
Uganda 137/10
Sierra Leone 138/9
Sierra Leone won by 1 wicket
Uganda’s quest for a fourth appearance at the ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup ended in a humiliating manner after losing to minnows Sierra Leone on Saturday at the ICC U-19 Men’s World Cup Qualifiers.
Emmanuel Isaneez’s boys for the first time at this tournament put up a decent display with the bat. They scored 137 runs in their innings, something they had been struggling with throughout the tournament.
Having defended a 69 score against Nigeria in their second game, their was confidence in Ugandans that 137 was more than enough to win the game convincingly.
But George Sesay (37) and Alusine Tutay (25) built an open 43-run partnership, before Ibrahim Sesay and Aliya Kamara drove the Baby Patriots to victory in the last over which they needed eight to win.
Uganda still had an outside chance of qualifying for next year’s World Cup. A convincing win coupled with a Namibia loss (devastating) to Nigeria would’ve handed the Baby Cricket Cranes a ticket to Sri Lanka, but that chance has been buried and it could get worse for Uganda as they now face a possibility of getting relegated to Div 2.
Should Sierra Leone – the team ranked lowest in Dar es Salaam – beat hosts Tanzania on Sunday, Uganda will be demoted.
The Baby Cricket Cranes have been one of the best bowling sides in this competition! when it mattered most however, they could not get the job done.
Fahad Mutagana, the captain of this team will feel let down by his teammates. Mutagana put up a great shift in both innings scoring 48 runs and plucking 3 wickets. His outing was not backed up by his teammates.
The team’s best bowler Joseph Baguma who currently leads the bowling charts in Dar es Salaam with 13 wickets conceded the joint most runs-32 and picked up just one wicket.
Baguma may end the tourney as the player with most wickets, but he will feel he did not deliver as expected of him against Sierra Leone.
This result means Namibia who play Nigeria on Sunday have qualified for the World Cup.
