Voorburg Cricket Ground, Netherlands. 13:00 EAT
UAE 128/5 in 20 overs (CR Seneviratna 55 (45), UCKA Dona 32 (30)) beat Uganda 99/7 in 20 overs (Immaculate Nakisuyi 33 (37)) by 29 runs.
In their one and only warm up game, the lady cricket cranes succumbed to a 29 run defeat at the hands of the United Arab Emirates.
Uganda took on the UAE in a warmup game this afternoon at the Voorburg cricket ground in Netherlands where they had the chance to show their worth, and for the coaches to see who best to select for the fixtures to follow when the qualifiers begin. The hard fought game saw Uganda lose the closely contested affair but with lots of positives to pick from.
Cranes skipper Kevin Awino won the toss and elected to field first. UAE got their innings to a slow start managing runs in just under 10 overs for the loss of 3 wickets. Uganda probably looked at dismissing their opponents for under 100 in 20 overs. This however proved to be a farfetched reality as CR Seneviratna 55 (45) and UCKA Dona 32 (30) combined well to propel the UAE to 127 runs for a fourth wicket stand.
Youngsters Joyce Mary Apio 2/16 in 4 overs and Rita Musamali 1/16 in 4 overs impressed with the ball in their respective bowling spells. The experienced Carol Namugenyi 0/27 in 3 overs perhaps had a bad day in office, but her coaches will be hoping that she can pick herself up from here and spearhead the attack for the team during the tournament.
Rachael Ntono 16 (16) and Saidat Kemigisha 11 (20) started Uganda’s innings chase with such ferocity that saw them amass 29 runs in just 4 overs before former lost her wicket. Rachael’s wicket was then followed by another 3 wickets for a paltry 7 runs leaving Uganda at 36 for 4 in 8 overs. Immaculate Nakisuyi 33(37) then stepped in to calm the nerves of the coaches and players alike who were staring into the abyss of defeat.
She was the stand out performer for Uganda with the bat and unfortunately her solo effort was simply not enough as the overs quickly run down leaving Uganda at 99/7 in 20 overs. Immaculate mixed up hard hitting with composed shots to see that Uganda put up a decent fight.
With the Scotland game just a day away, the Ugandan team will have to quickly forget the result here and look forward to their opening game against Scotland, one of the tournament’s favorites to qualify.
