How Baby Cricket Cranes batted their way to World Cup finals

One will struggle to find Uganda in the World Cup history booksfor different team sports. The appearances may be there but they are scanty few for the East African nation.

The She Cranes stand out with three appearances at the Netball World Cup. The Fifa World Cup is still a dream for the Uganda Cranes.

And it is really unfortunate that the U-20 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) runners-up Hippos missed out on the 2021 edition of Fifa U-20 World Cup in Indonesia after it was cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

But the Pearl of Africa was gifted again this week. Another bunch of teenagers, this time in the gentleman’s game, sealed a ticket to the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup due 2022 after winning the qualifying tournament in Rwanda.

The Baby Cricket Cranes will be in the West Indies next year to compete in the ICC Youth World Cup for the third time in history.

“We thank God who has given us the ability to win this tournament and be able to go to the World Cup,” coach Ivan Thawithemwira said after his boys celebrated a determinant eight-wicket victory over Tanzania at the Integrated Polytechnic Regional Centre oval in Kigali.

“Playing at a World Cup rarely happens for a Ugandan player. These boys are so blessed,” added Thawi, a former U-19 batting all-rounder.

Thawi, Turinawe special
Uganda first qualified for the U-19 World Cup at the Bangladesh 2004 and again two years later for the Sri Lanka 2006 under coaches Kenyan Tom Tikolo and Sam Walusimbi, respectively. Since then, Lawrence Ssematimba, Andrew Meya, Henry Okecho, Davis Turinawe, Francis Otieno and Jackson Ogwang came but all failed to unlock the dream.

So simply, Thawi and his assistant Robinson Turinawe are special. Uganda is believing and hoping that cricket will take a new gear when skipper Pascal Murungi and his counterparts mingle with the next Virat Kohli, Babar Azam, Trent Boult or Josh Hazlewood.

“We deserve a chance to be there so we are also one of the best teams in the world,” said Murungi, who was named MVP after scoring 134 runs in 3 innings and picking five wickets for 38 runs.

And the Baby Cricket Cranes this time did not babysit anyone. They worked to swing the lone ticket into their favour.
“The coaching was more tactical,” said Uganda Cricket Association (UCA) selector Richard Okia.

Team chemistry
The preparations were relatively better than recent seven failed World Cup attempts. First, the boys had developed team chemistry having played together in different clusters from the U-15 level with either Thawi or Robinson.

For instance, Murungi is thoroughly bred by Thawi, sharing captain-coach relationship in Nyakasura school team during the recent Schools Cricket Week tourney. Juma Miyaji, Ismail Munir, Ronald Lutaaya, Ronald Omara and Ronald Opio played under Robinson in an U-15s at the Starfield Tourney in Kenya in 2018.

Contrary to recent teams captained by Kenneth Waiswa and Frank Akankwasa, that had not been a significant case. 
“Undoubtedly, having team chemistry early strengthened the team,” says former U-19 wicket-keeper Denis Musali, who played both World Cup tourneys in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

“Those days, we had been together from U-15 level. So we played together for the U-15, U-17 before we got to the national team. We played a lot of international cricket as juniors.

“We would play against Kenya and Tanzania every December holiday but the events were funded by ICC and when they stopped, the events also died a natural death,” adds Musali, who played in a 213-run defeat to England that had captain Alaistar Cook, Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan and Liam Plunkett in Bangladesh.

Solid preparations
Fast-forward before Kigali, UCA had had the boys in a five-month preparations. UCA invited Nigeria’s Kaduna State last month which whitewashed the Baby Cricket Cranes in a three-match series but there were lessons learnt and some combinations moulded.

“UCA made sure that players were well facilitated for training. UCA also brought in Kaduna State to give the boys exposure. There was also a camp that was organised just before the tournament,” noted Okia.

That will partly explain how Murungi and co managed to recover from an opening seven-wicket loss to Namibia on September 30.

They responded bravely with a 100-run win via Duckworth & Lewis (D/L) method against Rwanda before returning to the Gahanga International Stadium to beat Nigeria by 82 runs. In both victories, the batsmen delivered and the bowlers sealed off the contests.

Against Rwanda, Cyrus Kakuru hit 11 boundaries for a century of 116 runs off 102 balls and shared 152 runs for the fifth wicket with Murungi (66 runs off 68 balls) before setting 311-9, the tournament’s biggest batting total.
Such scores are hard to come by for a country often undone by a persistent batting Achilles heel. 

“They have a lot of belief in themselves,” UCA CEO Martin Ondeko said.
Against Nigeria, off-break Joseph Baguma – who emerged as tournament’s best bowler – picked 5/22 to take wheels off the West African car which was in pursuit of a target of 208 runs.

“The basic disciplines are what we focused on and the boys executed them well. We had to repeat systems, certain formulas that we thought would bring us victory,” said Thawi.

“And we wanted to just go back to the basics of the game but also to dissect them in detail and then go over until we find the perfect way to do it.”

After beating Nigeria, Uganda had resurrected its Net Run Rate (NRR) – equivalent of goal difference in football – to 1.292 and by facing unbeaten Tanzania in the final on Wednesday, they knew they had to usurp their NRR (1.560).

Lucky charm
Sensing the state of the turning wicket, Murungi was lucky enough to win the toss and smartly asked the East African neighbours to bat first. 

“Fortune was with us this time round,” Musali says.
They then made a meal of it, Murungi backing his decision with stellar figures of 4/9 in 23 deliveries before bowling out the Tanzanians for 51 runs in 26.5 overs.

Then they needed to chase the target within 12 overs to beat Tanzania’s NRR and, Opio (16 off 18) and Isaac Ategeka (28*-run-a-ball) did so inside 62 balls to spark off celebrations across the Uganda cricket fraternity.

Caribe, Uganda comes
By virtue of his current position, Ondeko made it to Kigali and his smile couldn’t stop once Ategeka smashed the last two balls to the rope.

“Just like 2017, good plan execution, belief by players and management. Good preparations, good team vibe,” Ondeko said after hugging Thawi.
It is a sweet achievement for Thawi who’s mad about the West Indies’ players like Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo and legend Brian Lara.

“It is a dream come true but also, it’s an opening that our nation can capitalise on, being in a place like that where cricket history is so rich,” says Thawi who, at 39, still harbours dreams of continuing to play for the Cricket Cranes.

“We can be exposed to so many things; Caribbean Premier League, different opportunities can come up for sure. Many dreams will be achieved.”

Caribe, Uganda is coming!

Uganda’s Results 

Tanzania 51/10 Uganda 54/2 (10.2 overs)
Uganda U19 won by 8 wickets (with 238 balls remaining)
Uganda 207/9 Nigeria 125/10 (45 overs)
Uganda U19s won by 82 runs (with 30 balls remaining)
Uganda 311/9 [163] Rwanda 62/4
Uganda U19s won by 100 runs (D/L method)
Uganda 125/10 [111] (28.3 overs) Namibia 112/3 20/2 (4.3 overs)
Namibia U19s won by 7 wickets (with 80 balls remaining) (D/L method)

[email protected]