Batting concerns remain for cricket side

What you need to know:

Cricket. Uganda must finish among the top four of Namibia, Kenya, Canada, Netherlands and Nepal to avoid successive relegation back to the World Cricket League Division III.

KAMPALA. Renown Hollywood actor Arnold Schwarzenegger once said: ‘Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.’
It’s this motivational quote that will ring a loud bell in the ears of the men’s national cricket team players when at the gruesome ICC World Cricket League (WCL) Division II tournament that bowls off on Saturday.
The Cricket Cranes carried batting concerns to Windhoek last night after failing to impress in two warm-up matches played as they finalised preparations in South Africa’s beautiful city of Cape Town.
During the 10-day bootcamp that involved a series of training sessions and adventurous team bonding, coach Peter Kirsten’s side was far from convincing in last Thursday’s seven-wicket loss to Western Province Amateur XI and Tuesday’s 17-run win over the Boland Amateur X1 at Vineyard Oval in Newlands.
“The team is ticking most of the boxes but we still have some unfinished business in the batting,” skipper Frank Nsubuga admitted in a telephone interview with Daily Monitor from the team base at Park Inn Foreshore Hotel yesterday.
“We are strong in bowling and fielding but the hitches we face with the bat must be countered.”
Top-order trio of Arthur Kyobe, Roger Mukasa and Hamu Kayondo made no much impact as only assistant captain Brian Masaba stood out with respective scores of 57 (off 91) and 23 (off 34) enroute to setting scores below 170 runs in both matches.
“A less than 200-run score offers us no chance to win a single match on the fast pitches in Namibia,” Nsubuga noted. “Good partnerships depend on how the innings start and so the top-order ought to build momentum. We need to score more than 200 runs.”