Cricket enthusiasts on Thursday morning witnessed the battle of the titans as defending champions Busoga College Mwiri took on former champions Jinja SS at the Sky View Boys Schools Cricket Week in Jinja.
The two had been the only two sides in Group A on a perfect run in this competition, but once they met on match day five, boys were separated from men.
Prior the game, murmurs were heard from both camps of each wanting to bowl first! Luck fell to Mwiri captain Edwin Nuwagaba who won the toss.
He indeed chose to have the ball, and things looked pretty good for the side coached by the national U19 coach Emmanuel Isaneez.
Midway the power play, Jinja SS were a wicket down courtesy of the captain’s catch off Jaffer Ochaya’s bowling.
But it was not until the 8th over that Mwiri found another wicket. Ronald Magezi was dismissed which led to the introduction of Pius Oloka.
Oloka who eventually turned out to be a pain in the Mwiri dugout stuck in the wicket with opening batter Richard Sohera not until the 19th Over when the former was caught.
By the end of the first innings, the duo each with half centuries had helped Jinja SS set 148/4. Oloka then helped his side defend that total as he picked three wickets.
But Habib Mugalula’s team will be thankful to their opening bowlers Jonathan Nyiro and Peter Ochen.
The pair went riot on Mwiri’s top order, dismissing it inside power play. In the end, Mwiri were unable to mount a comeback as they suffered their first loss of the tournament.
The other game that drew attention from the game fanatics was the Nyakasura vs Lords Meade one.
Nyakasura won this game by 261 runs! They set the target at 263/4, but their opponents could only manage to score two runs.
Those runs were scored by the team captain Patrick Mwonda. The rest of the players were ducked as they were bowled out in the 4.5 Over.
Match Day five top performers were Nyakasura duo of Joseph Baguma and Mathew Musinguzi who each plucked five wickets in that game.
The other day’s top Performers included the duo from Ntare, Innocent Aijuka (4) and Brian Nasasira (4), Kilembe’s Festo Bwambale (4), Wilson Kimbugwe (4) from St. John’s SS and Kololo’s Aziz Tandia (4), but the man who carried the day was Jacob Malinga from Teso College.
Malinga knocked a tone of 119 off 64 as Teso College beat Ndejje by 74 runs. He becomes the fifth player to hit a tone in this competition after Christopher Kidega, Gerald Olipa, Mathew Musinguzi and Richard Sohera. That century takes Malinga second on the batting chart.
