By Steven Tusiime
KICC Vs Premier CC
KICC 171/7 in ( Micheal Ndiko 61 off 29, Wassim Butt 56 off 52) beat PREMIER (Ratheesth Nair 27 off 24, Rajesh Nair 26 off 31, Mansoor Samad 4/13 in 3 overs)
Man of Match: Mansoor Samad
KICC seem to be in hot-pursuit in the Unimoni National T20 CUP with an emphatic victory over premier and a narrow 1-run loss to challengers at the Entebbe oval last Sunday. Once again, Wassim Butt with a run a ball half ton combined with Michael Ndiko to see KICC home. Michael Ndiko did most of the damage with the bat to see KICC home clobbering a ferocious 61 that came just off 29 deliveries guiding KICC to a convincing win. Rajesh Nair with figures of 3/25 in 4 overs and Yasir Malik 3/30 in 4 overs were the outstanding performers with the ball.
Chasing down a target of 171, premier had not a light task at hand. Rajesh Nair opened the batting with Ronald Opio 19(12) but the partnership was denied flourish by Hanumant Katkar claiming both wickets.
Ratheesth Nair seemed to be the man to consolidate the shattered batting line-up with some assistance from Krunal Prajapati 16(12) and Phillip Arinaitwe 12(16) before an attack from Mansoor Samad that drew panic unto them forcing them to throw away their wickets. Davis Karashani gathered the dot balls with his cunning spin restricting the batsmen from attempting to execute scoring shots. The tail-enders were no match for the fired-up bowling attack failing to make any significant contributions.
Challengers Vs KICC
Challengers 122/8 (Nasser Ahmed 54* off 35) in 20 overs beat KICC 121/10 (Wassim Butt 49 off 27, Davis Karashani 17 off 23) in 20 overs by 1 run
Man Of Match: Nasser ahmed
Going into the game with high spirits, KICC hoped to pick their second win of the day. Challengers, their opponents, won the toss and chose to bat first, Arthur Kyobe opened the batting with Aneef Mohammed but their opening partnership lasted so short a time to cause any significant effect both wickets claimed by Suleiman Sharif who went on to pick the third successively.
At this point, challengers seemed to be tranquilized having lost 4 wickets with just 24 runs on board. Nasser Ahmed took the task upon himself to reinstate the shattered batting line-up with a tactical but yet aggressive half ton hammering 54 off just 35 balls. Despite some surprising resistance at the tail-end, Mansoor Samad rose up claiming two more wickets before 20 overs concluded with challengers struggling to a mere 122.
With a relatively low target, it much looked like KICC would ease to victory given their earlier encounter with Premier CC. It seemed KICC counted their chicks before they hatched. Wassim Butt (49) and Suleiman Sharif 15 opened the batting for KICC offering some stability before Nasser Ahmed got the breakthrough with Suleiman’s wicket. Two quick wickets fell successively courtesy of Gerald Mubiru and Nasser Ahmed mounting pressure on KICC.
Davis Karashani and michael Ndiko put up considerable resistance in the mid-order before falling to Asadu Seyiga and Amir Hamza and their dismissal proved the finishers were finished. Pressure mounted on the tail-enders consequently throwing away their wickets cheaply in attempt to steal quick singles. This left KICC short of the winning target by 2 runs.