Registering a run of four wins from five games enabled Uganda Cricket Cranes to finish on top of the ICC Cricket World Cup Challenge League B first round.
The Ugandans opened up the run with a 7-wicket win over Singapore, followed by a mammoth 209-run win over Tanzania, beat Italy by 24 runs in the deciding moment of the campaign and concluded with a 166-run win over Bahrain.
As the batting department of Uganda was showing a rise in numbers, the bowlers were also assuring of Uganda’s outstanding performance.
Throughout the five games, spinner Henry Ssenyondo has always been on the right path for Uganda’s surveillance.
Remarkably came a turning point against Italy by breaking the partnership of Emilio Gay and Joe Burns as the Italia opening batting pair was hitting to finish the game on a short note as they were standing above 100 runs in 18 overs.
By the time Gay was caught by Ssenyondo off his own bowling, the Italian was almost averaging a run par ball rolling on 50 runs from 51 balls.
From Ssenyondo, Alpesh Ramjani, Cosmas Kyewuta, Denish Nakrani and Juma Miyagi were not far from being superb with their bowling though Kyewuta didn’t make the 11 on the last two days.
In Batting, captain Riazat Alishah stood as a commanding figure with a gross of 278 runs including a century and two half-centuries.
On Riazat’s day off, opening batter Shrideep Mangela was there with his first century for Uganda though he used many balls (128) to reach the milestone. Denish Nakrani came up in the last two games hitting 58 runs against Italy and 76 against Bahrain while Ramjani also had 74 against Tanzania.
As Uganda was on high putting on 289 runs against Tanzania, 254 runs against Italy and 267 runs against Bahrain in the last match of the round, it was automatically a visual improvement in Uganda’s cricket luckily for batting first in four games out of five including the against Hong Kong China in the abandoned game because of the weather.
The ICC World Cup Challenge League B shall be hosted by Hong Kong China in February 2025 and Uganda shall take part as they chase for a slot at the ODI World Cup 2027 in Namibia and South Africa.
