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Cricket Cranes toast to rare scripted batting

Riazat Ali Shah was the bedrock of the team's batting. PHOTO/EDDIE CHICCO
What you need to know:
First, the Cricket Cranes had gone nearly two years without playing the longer limited overs format of the game yet, atop the order, the departure of Ronak Patel and omissions of left-hander Simon Ssesazi and aging Roger Mukasa seemed to create a bigger aura of uncertainty.
For a long while, there have been trust issues with Uganda’s batting abilities in the global cricket arena. This Achilles heel is not just with the senior national men’s team but the women’s too and down to the under-19s.
Opposition teams actually know how best to hurt Uganda in the gentleman’s game. Little wonder did the diehards of the Cricket Cranes not entirely enjoy the country’s debut at the International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s T20 World Cup in the West Indies back in June.
Predictable batting
Granted, Uganda beat Papua New Guinea (PNG) by three wickets at the Providence Stadium, Guyana only because the latter set a double-digit score of 77 runs all-out on June 5.
However, the rest of the Group C matches against Afghanistan, West Indies and New Zealand showed the stage was too big for Abhay Sharma’s side.
Four months later, the worries were bigger for the Cricket Cranes ahead of the first round of the ICC Cricket World Cup Challenge League (CWCCL) B in Lugogo and Entebbe.
Changes with doubts
First, the Cricket Cranes had gone nearly two years without playing the longer limited overs format of the game yet, atop the order, the departure of Ronak Patel and omissions of left-hander Simon Ssesazi and aging Roger Mukasa seemed to create a bigger aura of uncertainty.
Then, the change in the captaincy from Brian Masaba to Riazat Ali Shah was taken in by many with a pinch of salt. Change is inevitable but just difficult to accept for human nature.
However, only for Shah to disprove the subjective doubters with a perfect sailing of the ship on familiar waters with four wins in five matches against Singapore, Tanzania, Italy and Bahrain over the past fortnight.
“We are very happy. The way we won, the way the results went and especially we utilized our home advantage properly and especially, the fans were amazing and they came and supported us properly and I will say thank you to our loyal fans,” Shah told this paper in an interview.
Uganda finished with nine points out of a possible 10. Batting all-rounder Kenneth Waiswa actually felt that the team would have beaten Hong Kong, whose match on November 10 in Lugogo, was washed out with the Asian nation at 72-3 in 15.2 overs while chasing a target of 292 runs.
Well-structured batting
Despite batting at number five, Shah led from the front by top-scoring in the CWCCL leg with 276 runs in five innings including his 87-ball century of 104 runs against Tanzania.
In the past, Uganda has struggled to keep its wickets column less busy. Inevitably, reaching 100 runs in the T20 code often seemed labored and so was the 200-run mark in the 50-over format.
This time in Lugogo and Entebbe, Sharma and his assistant Jackson Ogwang cut more relaxed poses in the dugout. The notes from batting consultant Namibian Craig Williams seemed to work finely.
The opening batsmen Robinson Obuya, Shrideep Mangela and Raghav Dhawan, the latter two being direct replacements for Ssesazi and Mukasa, honestly got starts but struggled to convert.
Obuya’s knock of 48 runs off 68 balls seemed to be the highest score amongst them not until Manegla broke the shackles to make a pivotal unbeaten century of 102 runs off 128 balls against Bahrain.
Power-hitting mid-order
However, their wickets never fell too fast. In all matches bar the chase of 83 runs against Singapore in Entebbe, Uganda’s third wicket fell after the 20th over.
By holding onto wickets tight, it paved the way for the middle order comprising Shah, Dinesh Nakrani and Alpesh Ramjani to flourish.
The trio all had strike rates above 100 and shared five half-centuries; Ramjani stroking a highest score of 74 runs off 48 balls against Tanzania while Nakrani’s highest knock was 47-ball 76* against Bahrain.
Overall, the trio combined to score 39 boundaries and 24 sixes, often accelerating Uganda’s innings to reach the 250-run plus totals, four being successive which has never happened in the country’s List A cricket history.
“I would say one thing; we are a World Cup team right now. We don’t have to think about 200 or anything, we have to think forward and we have to score big,” Shah stated.
“Mentally, we are up there and we will keep Uganda playing up there. We want to go and play at the World Cup again; we want to compete with the big teams,” he added.

Ssenyondo bowled his lungs out. PHOTO/AMINAH BABIRYE
Master Ssenyondo
Mangela's century became the fifth for Uganda within the last seven 50-Over competitive matches stretching back to 2022. Overall, Uganda made 25 partnerships over 10 runs each and seven of them exceeded 50 runs, quite rare from the East African country.
And by relying on the middle order to bat towards the finish, it meant the tail end had less to do but rather concentrate on bowling right in their spells.
Two of the three players who hit a double-digit tally of wickets were Ugandans; both left-arm orthodox bowlers Henry ‘Master Wong’ Ssenyondo (11) and Ramjani (10).
However, the tournament’s best bowler was another slow left-arm bowler Yasim Murtaza with 13 wickets and four maidens.
Ssenyondo produced the highest tournament maiden tally of eight and he was crucial in defeating Italy. The European nation arranged a new unit comprising experienced players from England’s county cricket and Australia’s Test side.
And even Uganda consumed 102 dot balls in the opening 28 overs before setting 254-9, Italy’s openers Emilio Gay (50 off 51) and Joe Burns (82 off 88) took off 115 runs in 17.4 overs which left Uganda in its worst spot of bother in the tournament.
However, when Ssenyondo caught and bowled Gay enroute to a clinical spell of 4/28 and two maidens, Italy lost the other nine wickets for 115 runs.
Ramjani had cleared and forwarded 47 runs in his first four overs only to turn on the magic and finish with figures of 5/69 in 9.3 overs.
Some more questions
“Our coaching staff is amazing. They have different information, they have different knowledge from different countries and it gives us some really good confidence especially in the different conditions we are playing,” remarked Shah.
Uganda still has the capacity to stifle sides with the ball, but. The next leg of CWCCL B comes up in Hong Kong in February and things could be a little different.
At home, Shah won the toss three successive matches and opted to bat in all, to allow the side bat under less pressure while executing in the middle.
When asked to chase a big total, the pressure may speak differently. Secondly, Italy under Gareth Berg showed they have the oomph to bolster the side with more experienced players so are Bahrain who can ship in from Pakistan.
Such could offer Sharma’s unit tougher questions in the three-legged road to the ICC ODI (One Day International) World Cup set to be in Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa in 2027.
The party for now can still go on!
ICC CWC CHALLENGE LEAGUE B
ROUND 1 UGANDA’S COLLATED RESULTS
Uganda 267/8 Bahrain 101/10
(Uganda won by 166 runs)
Uganda 254/9 Italy 230/10
(Uganda won by 24 runs)
Uganda 291/9 Hong Kong 72/3 (15.2 overs)
(Match washed out)
Uganda 289/7 Tanzania 80/10
(Uganda won by 209 runs)
Singapore 82 Uganda 86/3
(Uganda won by 7 wickets)
2024-2026 ICC CWC CHALLENGE LEAGUE B
POINTS TABLE AFTER FIRST LEG
Team M W L N/R Pts NRR
1. Uganda 5 4 0 1 9 2.874
2. Italy 5 3 1 1 7 2.244
3. Hong Kong China 5 3 1 1 7 -0.519
4. Bahrain 5 2 2 1 5 -0.299
5. Tanzania 5 0 4 1 1 -1.491
6. Singapore 5 0 4 1 1 -2.608
N/R denotes No Result
NRR denotes Net Run Rate
FIRST LEG STATISTICS
TOP RUN SCORERS
Riazat Ali Shah (UGA) 276 runs in 5 innings
Emilio Gay (ITA) 269 runs in 4 innings
Shrideep Mangela (UGA) 173 runs in 5 innings
TOP WICKET TAKERS
Yasim Murtaza (HKG) 13 wickets
Henry Ssenyondo (UGA) 11 wickets
Alpesh Ramjani (UGA) 10 wickets
UGANDA’S TOP PLAYERS
BATTING
Riazat Ali Shah: 276 runs in 5 innings
Shrideep Mangela: 176 runs in 5 innings
Dinesh Nakrani: 169 runs in 4 innings
Robinson Obuya: 141 runs in 5 innings
Alpesh Ramjani: 112 runs in 4 innings
BOWLING
Henry Ssenyondo: 11 wickets for 87 runs & 8 maidens
Alpesh Ramjani: 10 wickets for 117 runs & 5 maidens
Dinesh Nakrani: 7 wickets for 99 runs
Juma Miyagi: 6 wickets for 93 runs & 6 maidens
Cosmas Kyewuta: 5 wickets for 76 runs & 3 maidens
LAST UGANDA CENTURIONS - LIST A CRICKET
Aug 13, 2022: Ronak Patel (121* runs off 122 balls) vs. Bermuda in St Saviour, Jersey
Aug 14, 2022: Simon Ssesazi (137 runs off 134 balls) vs. Hong Kong in St Martin, Jersey
Aug 14, 2022: Arnold Otwani (129 runs off 127 balls) vs. Hong Kong in St Martin, Jersey
Nov 9, 2024: Riazat Ali Shah (104 runs off 87 balls) vs. Tanzania in Lugogo, Uganda
Nov 16, 2024: Shrideep Mangela (102* runs off 128 balls) vs. Bahrain in Entebbe, Uganda