Cricket: Series decider for Uganda, Qatar

Doha. Friendly tours are not all about winning. But in sport, winning is, most of the time, everything. And if results are anything to go by on this Bilateral Cricket Series, Uganda can count themselves victors since they have triumphed over the senior men’s Qatar side twice after four games.
The East Africans blemish has been the two losses to the Qatar President’s XI – a mixture of the emerging players, senior squadsmen and those yet to make the grade to represent the gulf nation.

But in all four games played, Steve Tikolo’s boys have acquainted themselves well and run the opposition close even the lost matches as justified by the 13-run and 12-run loss in Game One (Twenty20) and Game Four (45-Over rubber) respectively.

Brand of cricket
Captain Roger Mukasa and his brigade have won over some local fans along the way for their never-give-up attitude and brand of cricket.
But all that could count for nothing in the eyes of the partisan fans back at home if the Cricket Cranes don’t seal the initiative in the tour-ending Twenty20 match at the Asian Town International Cricket Stadium today.
“We want to win,” said Mukasa without thinking twice. “But even if we lose, we want to do so after doing the basics right and playing to the team strategy. We have a big squad here and the coach wants everyone to put in a good number of games under their belt.”

Qatar National Sports Day
The series decider happens on a public holiday for the natives dubbed – The Qatar National Sports Day – held annually on the second Tuesday in February, with the main objective of promoting a healthy lifestyle among its population and celebrate the Qatar’s bid that earned the right to host the Fifa 2022 World Cup.
“Expect a good crowd at the stadium and expect fierce competition from us. We want to show our crowd that we can do well in the ICC World T20 Regional Qualifiers scheduled for Kuwait in April,” said Qatar captain Inam Ul-Haq.

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