Venue: Lugogo Oval
Premier VS KICC – 10:30am
Umpire: Eric Wandera & Godfrey Mandela, Patrick Makumbi (Match Ref)
PREMIER CC FORM: L
K.I.C.C FORM: L L
One of the oldest and greatest rivalries in Ugandan Cricket is back on the league fixture list; flooded with world class batsmen and athletes in the 90s these two great clubs show cased some of the finest cricket Uganda had to offer.
Kampala Institute Cricket Club takes on Premier Cricket Club. In the 90s where cricket was played without helmets and off sisal mats, some really great gladiators graced Lugogo Oval in this fixture;
Former K.I.C.C top order batsman Nehal Bibodi; this fixture featured players like Jedhav Himanshu, Atul Bedade, Pritesh Patel for Premier; Nehal Bibodi, Ketan Shukla Keyur Padia, Ali Abbas, and I can’t forget Youous Khan the great fast bowler and all-rounder.
We use to have great rivalry because communities from both teams came in big numbers to watch, there was so much pressure from ball one, It almost use to be like India/Pakistan rivalry, there was no margin for error.”
Premier and K.I.C.C will meet at the Lugogo Oval both looking for their first win of the season; K.I.C.C waiting on a technical award of points after the Ceylon Lions breached one of the playing conditions.
Kampala Institute Cricket Club will not be satisfied with their performance to date. They have failed to build any meaningful partnerships with bat and the main bowlers are struggling for wickets.
The player feeling the most pressure will be Afridi Irfan; coming in as top bowler from the 2017 season he has only two wickets an average of 27 in 2018. Picking Naseer Ahmed in Entebbe and Eddie Agaba in Kyambogo.
Arthur Ziraba has it all to do, a battling 30 in the failed run chase against Ceylon Lions could be the wake up call to his fellow senior compatriots Frank Nsubuga and Davis Karashani to find the fighting form needed for their first on field win.
Falak Sher and Wasim Butt in the top order can’t seem to buy a run at the moment, and all this transfers to Captain Hanumant Katkar who will be wary of how quickly a season can fall apart in Division 1
K.I.C.C captain Hanumant Katkar;
“We are going to win properly, no technical issues. Opposition has to be ready to see the real K.I.C.C. This is an old rivalry and we expect the clash to be big as always. The First two games were a lesson and now team is well synchronized, ready to move ahead.”
Premier CC came up against Tornado Bees CC in their first match, losing by nine wickets. It was a test of their bowling depth and they left the Lugogo Oval with more questions than answers.
Seven bowlers were used on the day and the highlight was left arm spinner Anzeel Mohammed who picked the only wicket but also went for runs like everyone else.
The batting held some promise and Under 19 player Calvin Watuwa will need to find consistency in his performances after his 45(67) helped Premier post a respectable score.
More will be expected of from top order of Stalin Jaganathan, Ratheesh Nair and Ronald Opio if Watuwa and Robinson Turinawe must be used effectively to attack the old ball on Sunday.
Premier CC Captain Utsav Shah;
“In the first game we started well but collapsed in the middle order. We will rearrange it. It is a must win game for u now. We have a well-balanced playing XI for this game. KICC lost their first 2 games so it will be a very competitive match on Sunday”
It will be worth it to note for the current crop of players that they are stepping into a fixture created by Legends of the game.
