The Cricket Cranes opened their third edition of the Namibian tour with a 26-run defeat to the Richelieu Eagles at the Castle Lite Series on Wednesday.
A string of bad luck for Cricket Cranes
Uganda was without Riazat Ali Shah, one of their top guns, who lost his passport in transition to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This meant that the Cricket Cranes had to start with only 13 players.
After winning the toss, Brian Masaba, the captain of the team, decided upon fielding first. Dinesh Nakrani, winner of the Player of the Match against Kenya at the finals of the Continent Cup last month, was tasked to open the bowling.
Juma Miyaji, who missed the Continent Cup in Nairobi due to a back injury, was introduced to the attack in the second over.
He immediately put a stop to Namibia’s forces, bowling two dot balls and conceding just one run.
However, Miyaji came out uneasy in what seemed like a recurring back injury. Action for him was immediately discontinued having bowled just four balls.
Kenneth Waiswa completed Miyaji’s over, and when it was his turn to bowl, he conceded the same number of runs Nakrani did in the opening over.
Michael Van Lingen had a Man of the match performance.
Michael Van Lingen and Nickolas Davin, the Namibian openers, took a liking to Ugandan pacers as by the time Masaba introduced spin into the attack at the end of Powerplay, the score was reading 55 for no loss.
Cricket Cranes show resilience
Henry Senyondo gave Mahatlane‘s charges some breathing space. His first over went for only 3 runs.
Alpesh Ramjani then picked up two wickets in his next over, both of which were caught by Simon Ssesazi.
Ramjani then followed his pair of wickets with another in the 15th over, a catch as well that was taken by Waiswa.
Despite this, Namibia set the score at 191
While Uganda lost the game, they will feel proud of their resilience and determination.
Ronald Lutaya and Kenneth Waiswa put together a total of 51 runs from 42 balls, and Ramjani joined the youngster on the crease and helped drag Uganda to 143 with their combined quick 71.
Ramjani, who is also touring Namibia for the first time, notched 55, the team’s highest. He was closely followed by Lutaya’s 54 not out. Ramjani was also the team’s highest wicket-taker with three.
The two teams will be back in action tomorrow on the same grounds for their second T20 match.
Photo Credit: Official Cricket Namibia
1 comment
They can still take over the castle lite series in the remaining matches against Namibia????????????
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