Victories elusive for Cricket Cranes but…
The Cricket Cranes lost their third consecutive Bilateral Series match on their Tour of Qatar after going down by 28 runs in a Twenty20 International on Thursday night during an encounter whose advantage kept swinging from side to side.
The Cricket Cranes lost their third consecutive Bilateral Series match on their Tour of Qatar after going down by 28 runs in a Twenty20 International on Thursday night during an encounter whose advantage kept swinging from side to side.
Whereas the match could have gone either way, Qatar held their nerve to restrict coach Davis Turinawe’s brigade to 126 runs for the loss of 7 wickets under floodlights with no less than three batsmen managing more than 20 runs.
But the visitors can take heart from the lessons learned and handful of positives attained. After being smoked 201 runs in the first T20I, Uganda only conceded 154 runs - giving away just six extras in the process.
Although a couple of catches were still dropped, the judgement from the fielders was a lot better and the innings of Kenneth Waiswa was a joy to watch as long as it lasted.
Notable positives
Waiswa nearly stole it away from the hosts with a fruitful knock of 39 runs off 23 balls that comprised of three boundaries and two meaty sixes. But his effort was only supported by skipper Arnold Otwani (25 off 18), and the pair alone couldn’t help Uganda level the series.
“That was a much improved performance,” said interim coach Turinawe. “The bowling was better which shows the bowlers had studied the opposition’s batsmen better this time round. But we didn’t bat well in the powerplay and that was undoing. On such build-up tours its important that we learn and adapt quickly so that when the big tournaments come we are ready for whatever is thrown at us.”
With the fielding restrictions on, Uganda’s top order batters; Zephaniah Arinaitwe (8 off 13) and Roger Mukasa (24 off 38) managed only 15 runs in the first six overs (powerplay) - a scenario which built pressure in the Ugandan dugout as the rest of the teammates were left with so much to do.
