Ssesaazi trigers Charity’s survival quest
Charity wicket keeper Sharma Mukaaya Uzama (C) and medium pacer Simon Ayella (R) successfully appeal for an lbw dismissal against Kutchi Tigers on Sunday. photo: Eddie Chicco
Kampala. Teenage batsman Simon Ssesaazi scored a century of 128 runs off 115 balls to end his side Charity Trust Fund’s bad run as they beat Kutchi Tigers by 83 runs at Lugogo Oval on Sunday. “This is impressive,” Ssesaazi told Daily Monitor after making his seventh career ton in the National Men’s Division One 50-Over League. “I didn’t expect it,” he noted. “I had a shaky start but eventually got confident and came out on top.”
The 19-year-old batsman is the youngest to score a ton in the topflight league this year after Roger Mukasa, Arthur Kyobe, Irfan Afridi and Vinod Rabadiya.
His feat gave Charity, currently seventh (10 points) on the eight-team table, hopes of surviving relegation.
“This win is our starting point. If we keep on fighting like this, we’ll surely survive,” Ssesaazi, a Senior Six student at Mukono Parents School, said of his team’s second win of the season. Their last victory had come in their season opener against Rounders on May 3. When his brother Lawrence Ssempijja opted to bat first, left-hander Ssesaazi lost his fellow opener Zephania Arinaitwe in the fifth over. But he hit 10 boundaries and seven maximums as he shared a 167-run combo with Edmond Musasira (39 off 75).
And after Ssempijja’s 34-ball 20, Charity faded fast at the hands of Rabadiya (4/45) and Hiren Varaiya (2/23) to set 249-9.
Tigers, who suffered their third season defeat, had their innings filled with bursts of adrenaline.
They were 55-5 midway the 16th over courtesy of Simon Ayella (4/45) and when Varaiya (67* off 71) and Rabadiya (49 off 82) steadied the ship, umpire James Bamulese gave the latter out for a controversial lbw dismissal off Arinaitwe. The Indian-born Kenyan would walk off in protest before Arinaitwe quickly put Tigers’ tail-end to its knees for a five-wicket haul.
Weekend results
DIVISION ONE
Charity TF 249/9 Kutchi Tigers 166/10
(Charity TF won by 83 runs)
DIVISION TWO
Wanderers 328/7 JACC 147/10 [287]
(Wanderers won by 90 runs via D/L)
Aziz Damani 234/10 ACC 235/8
(ACC won by two wickets)
Premier 168/10 Mwiri 131/10
(Premier won 37 runs)
