The Cricket Cranes’ hopes of winning a gold medal at the African Games crashed in an awful manner on Thursday following their disappointing defeat to Namibia in the semifinals.
The side, with their impressive bowling and fielding had their fans believing that they would finally turn the tables around against Namibia.
The Richelieu Eagles have often taken Uganda to the cleaners; but a brilliant first innings, had the East Africans’ hopes high.
Through Alpesh Ramjani and Juma Miyaji who each ended the innings with three wickets, the Cricket Cranes who during their tour of Namibia last year lost by 73 runs (in one of their games) to the hosts cornered the Namibians, restricting them to only 111.
Batting woes continue
However, despite hiring a batting coach, in Namibian international, Criag Williams, Ugandan fans were made to endure a familiar horrific batting show.
With exception of Roger Mukasa who lived to face more than 20 balls, and the only one to put a reasonable number (36) on board, no other Ugandan batter went beyond 15 runs.
Mukasa’s opening partner Simon Ssesazi fell with 7 on board while the other top order batter Ronald Lutaya went for a duck.
All-rounders Dinesh Nakrani, Ramjani and Kenneth Waiswa who was the captain of the side in the absence of injured Brian Masaba combined for a meagre 22.
Unlike against South Africa when Masaba had to brave an injury he suffered in the first innings of that game to get his team over the line, there was no one to take the mantle on Thursday.
The end result was a frustrating loss which ended Uganda’s hopes for a gold medal.
They will now hope to win bronze when they face Kenya in the bronze medal match on Friday morning. Kenya lost to Zimbabwe by 70 runs in the other semifinal game.
Zimbabwe will battle Namibia for gold on that same day.
Courtesy Photos
