NUMBERS GAME PART 2: HOW UGANDA WORKED OUT KENYA IN NUMBERS
By ALVIN BAGAYA
Uganda eventually got all the numbers right and ticked all the boxes second time around against Kenya at Gahanga International Cricket Oval; in the end a well-played win by 7 wickets; key to this game was winning the toss and electing to field for Uganda.
Get Gondaria and Obanda early; Partnership 28 (15)
In typical fashion Gondaria and Obanda were pillaging runs at will, but as discussed in the first part, breaking any partnership involving Dhiren Gondaria, Alex Obanda, Rakep Patel and Collins Obuya was key; the wreckful openers racing to 30 in 2.4 overs at 12.5 an over, Gondaria doing most of the damage, Obanda watching on.
Gondaria took Kenya to 20/0 off the first two overs of which he had faced only six of the balls and scored all runs on board save for the opening wide from Bilal Hassan; such is the dexterity and competency of the opener.
Obanda went early, trapped in front by Bilal Hassan, Claude Thorbun obliging; having done no damage at all. Kenya then lost Gondaria 17 balls later to put some brakes on the run-away train.
Gondaria and Rakep short stay; Partnership 23(16)
At this point Kenya were moving at 10 an over, slightly below par for a batsman of Ghondaria’s class as we have come to know and expect of him; even when Rakep kept offering him the strike.
Gondaria Caught off Riazat’s bowling in the sixth over.
Milestone two accomplished, Gondaria gone early.
Obuya and Rakep Patel come together, the likely match winners; Partnership 11(12)
2 overs later and Kenya lost Rakep with the run rate having dropped further to 5.5 during this 13 ball spell of the match and 8.3 for the match. Kenya had not fallen below at least 10 or close to 15 an over against any opponent through the powerplay in the tournament, having cruised along at 15 an over at this point in the first game against Uganda.
At this point, Uganda had done most of the damage they could have ever hoped of inflicting in the best top order of the tournament thus far. Half the job done.
Obuya and Gurdeep recovery; Partnership 68(49)
The list of players that Uganda had to deal with early had three down, Collins Obuya left, and he did do a rebuilding job with Gurdeep Singh but at 8.3 an over for their partnership and 8.6 for the match, Kenya were always in trouble; never succeeding in lifting Kenya’s run rate above 10. The final total always in danger of being overrun at the batsman friendly Gahanga International Stadium.
No platform;
Having earlier relied heavily on the supersonic starts and platforms laid by Obanda, Gondaria and Rakep in previous matches, Kenya now had the rebuilding and damage control to do, this is always a dangerous prospect in the short version. The same conundrum Uganda faced in Game 1 of the tournament.
By the point Obuya was bowled by Bilal, run rate had only gone up to 9.2 for the match and the innings ended with RRR at 9.45 for Uganda.
The Run Chase in cruise control; Ronak and Dinash Nakrani: Partnership 146 (89)
With the records at Gahanga thus far, it was a tough ask to defend 9.45 an over, barring a calamitous collapse from the opponent. Early inroads meant Kenya now faced the most inform batsman early in the innings, allowing for time to settle in early and Nakrani signaled his intentions scoring a boundary off the first ball he faced from Oluoch.
When Uganda lost Hamu, their Run rate for match was 7.3, after the arrival of Dinesh to join Ronak, they upped this to 10 odd for the duration of their 14 over partnership and kept slightly ahead of the RRR at 9.76 for the match.
In the 146 run partnership between Ronak and Dinesh, they did not score off only 30 balls of the partnership, rotating strike off 28 of the balls and finding boundaries (Nine 4s and Twelve 6s) off 31 of the balls faced.
Such was the tallied and methodical approach to the chase, when the RRR crept above 11 in the 14th over, Nakrani took 18 off Obuya to bring the run chase back to parity.
The fatal blow; Riazat and Nakrani Partnership 21(9)
Riazat Ali Shah then knocked off 16 runs in 4 balls to finish the game well within the safe zone with 7 balls to spare.
A tough job for the bowlers to contain the Kenya batting to a run rate below 10 for an innings, but once well executed on the day, by plan or default, it achieved the desired results.
