Jinja Oval
Avengers 204/9 Chitan Kerai 60(72) Adonia Waibale 3/15 in in 50 Overs beat Wanderers 202/10 Denis Musali 115(141) in 49.1 Overs by 2 runs
Man of Match- Denis Musali 115(141)
Catches win games and Wanderers will certainly remember this statement after they put down 12 catches in their 2 run loss to Avengers in Jinja. Wanderers was playing 1st game of the season and elected to field after winning the toss. Avengers promoted from Div 3 are mainly Asian dominated and took the fight to Wanderers from the onset sticking to the wicket without being bothered by the score. Part time left arm Micheal Nuwagaba broke the opening stand with Avengers still unfazed at 19/1 in 10 overs.
The arrival of Chitan Kerai (60) at 3 added some impetus to the Avengers innings who scored freely and he made the most of Wanderers poor fielding after he was put down a couple of times and in the process top scoring for his side. Avengers seemed to be cruising to a bigger total but Adonia Waibal (3/15) with his medium pacers halted this progress removing the key wickets of half centurion Chitan Keria, Captain Wassim Ahmed and Big Hitting Amir Waseem with Avengers finishing on 204/9 in their 50 overs.
In the chase Wanderers never looked comfortable with all the top 4 batsmen giving away their wickets cheaply and they were quickly reduced to 50/6. Only a 120 runs 7th wicket partnership between Taha Syeed and Captain Denis Musali revived the chase and put Avengers on the back foot, with Wanderers Captain notching up his 1st career century in the process.
The loss of Taha with 28 runs still required off as many overs left Wanderers will the upper hand in the game as long as Musali was still on the wicket, however, the former decided to throw away the game with only 6 runs required for the win. The last wicket pair of Tembo Zubair and Tusiime Peter were pressed till the former got a faint edge behind which the wicketkeeper was able to collect and send the small contingent of Avengers in celebration.
Wanderers will have to quickly forget this game and work on their fielding which clearly lost them the game, its impossible to win a game after dropping 12 field catches and a win would have been a clear get out of jail card. Avengers will savour the win their first win in Div 2 as they aim to stay in Div 2 or even better go the title.
