Ugandan side loses to Tanzania, Zimbabwe

The tune ‘Twenty20, it’s time to party,” is a famous sound track for an advert on South African Pay-TV SuperSport littered with eye-catching clips of a cricket carnival atmosphere.

Big hits, acrobatic fielding skills, wild wicket celebrations and skimply-dressed female fans cheering themselves hoarse with plenty to drink and eat, all feature in this 45 seconds advert.
It is a high-adrenaline clip and by the time it ends, even those who regarded cricket as boring, are bowled over immediately.

Such is the power of the latest code of the game (cricket), the International Cricket Council (ICC) has taken to it, like fish in water to ensure, the game spreads allover the globe like wildfire.

Twenty20 provides entertainment which brings excitement. There is, however, no excitement in Team Uganda camp here at the ongoing ICC Africa Women’s World T20 Qualifier.
Four games, three losses, is how Uganda’s scorecard reads. It is not that coach Jonathan Ssebanja and assistant coach Grace Mutyagaba’s girls are not good enough.

It is a case of the brightest student and most attentive one in class not being able to register an A in their examinations. Some would call it fate. But for the Lady Cricket Cranes, it has been a concoction of mishaps.

From swaggering in last for the four-nation showpiece whose winner will take the continent’s lone ticket to the Global Qualifier in West Indies 2018, to enduring a 15-hour journey from Uganda to Zimbabwe, thanks to the horrendous flight connections, and to playing two high-intensity matches against Kenya and Zimbawe on the next morning (Saturday), things have not been going as everyone in Team Uganda’s camp would have loved.

Clueless
Against Kenya, Ssebanja’s charges were clueless as they gifted the old enemy a 13-run win, their first in six years over Uganda, at The Country Club Oval in Harare. There was a better performance against Zimbabwe as Uganda made them toil for every run during the chase of 71 but the hosts sailed home with six wickets in hand and 36 balls to spare at the Alex Sports Club Oval.

Yesterday, Uganda somewhat connived to give Tanzania a four-run win in a low-scoring thriller that exposed the Lady Cricket Cranes’ frailties against slow and accurate bowling while chasing 84 for victory in vain.

That game left the Ugandan coaches with forlorn faces as their brigade showed signs of fatigue – caused by the bumper schedule.
As the second round got underway, Uganda turned on the style. Scoring the tournament’s second ton (114) and proceeding to bowl them out for a paltry 61 to avenge the earlier loss and keep within a chance of progressing to the Caribbean in 2018.
Unbeaten Zimbabwe, however, remain strong favourites to secure the ticket to West Indies.

SATURDAY RESULTS
Kenya 97/7 Uganda 84/7
Uganda lost by 13 runs
Uganda 71/8 Zimbabwe 72/4
Uganda lost by 6 wickets
Yesterday’s results
Tanzania 84/3 Uganda 80/9
Uganda lost by 4 runs
Uganda 114/5 Kenya 61/10
Uganda won by 53 runs