Cricket Cranes to face Qatar

Nairobi. For the first time on this tour, the Cricket Cranes didn’t pull their weight properly.
It was supposed to be a good day for Uganda in a format (T20) everyone believes Ugandans were born to play.
In the absence of work-laden Davis Karashani, it was expected the team would give Brian Masaba a winning-return as the skipper. Masaba was appointed captain after Karashani went into mini-retirement two years ago.
But all things went haywire as Uganda went down by 31 runs to Saudi Arabia in the opener of the Four-Nations Twenty20 Quadrangular Series at Nairobi Gymkhana Ground yesterday.
First and foremost, a wet square ensured that the match earlier scheduled for 9.30am could only bowl off at 2pm because of a ‘Wet Playing Square’ as a result of the previous night’s heavy rains.

When the game got under way, the bowling lacked bite with Pakistani-born Abdul Waheed (71 off 44), coach-player Muhammad Abbasi Mazhar (24), Nadeem Javeed (33*) and Ibra Ul Haq (23*) pounding the Ugandan bowlers all over the pack enroute to reaching 179 for 4.
The experienced trio Frank Nsubuga (0/24 in 2), Charles Waiswa (0/44 in 4) and Deus Muhumuza (1/32 in 3) flew at more than 10 runs per over. The bowlers had read from a different script.
When the chase got underway, there was lack of the much-needed awareness and intensity. Two wickets fell in the opening over bowled by military-medium pacer Ibra Ul Haq.

Left-hander Arthur Kyobe showed naivety when he was run out off a leg bye for a duck. T20 debutante Zephaniah Arinaitwe paid the price of trying to hit the ball too hard ended up yoking himself and getting bowled in the process.
Two wickets down with just six runs on board was never going to be an ideal start.
In a flash it was 5 for 70 after 12 overs and the game was literally over as a contest. A late show of lusty hitting from Masaba (21 off 12), Nsubuga (29) and Irfan Khan Afridi (0/23 in 4 & 18 off 11) was a little too late as Uganda ended on 148 for 8.

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