Cricket Cranes Up Preps for World Cup Qualifiers

Lions 109/10
Uganda 113/5
Uganda won by 5 wickets.

The national senior men’s cricket team, the Cricket Cranes begun their tour of South Africa with an easy 5-wicket win against DP World Lions on Sunday.

The game had a couple of questions answered like who will wicketkeep during the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Africa Qualifiers set to bowl off in a fortnight time, and how far down the order will Robinson Obuya play.

Going by Sunday’s lineup, Gaurav Tomar will keep ahead of Cyrus Kakuru and Obuya will enter one down. Tomar on his first game for the Cricket Cranes outside the country gave a very good account of himself.

The 34-year-old was at the center of dismissing their opponents in the first innings with two dismissals to his name- a run out and a catch as the Cricket Cranes bundled out the Lions with just 109 in the 19th Over.

He then ensured Uganda found little trouble in the chase as he fired 35 off 27. With Obuya scoring 23 off 17, Dinesh Nakrani who entered at No.5 scoring 29 off 21 and the team captain Riazat Ali Shah 10 off 7, the Cricket Cranes got their business done in the 16.3 Over.

Juma Miyaji (3/23), Cosmas Kyewuta 2/14, Henry Ssenyondo 2/22 and Nakrani 2/25 picked the wickets for Uganda.

The Cricket Cranes will return to action on Tuesday against the Titans XI before their last game scheduled to take place on the next day.

They will then depart South Africa on Thursday to Zimbabwe where the real deal awaits them. Before the tournament proper, they will play warm up games ahead of their opening game in Group B which is against Group favorites, Zimbabwe.

Uganda had to beat Zimbabwe in the previous qualifiers to secure their maiden spot at the World Cup. They will need to negotiate their way past Zimbabwe again if they’re to return to the global showpiece.