Thawi ton offsets Nyakasura
Thawithemwira celebrates with his Nyakasura teammates at Lugogo on Sunday. PHOTO | EDDIE CHICCO
What you need to know:
- With Thawi and U-19 national captain Pascal Murungi at the crease, they shared a 79-run partnership before the latter departed with a 36-ball 48 at the end of the 20th over.
Ivan Thawithemwira loves Nyakasura. It is where he studied and he has since returned to the school in Fort Portal to nurture cricket talent.
He even picked a handful of players to help him as he coached Uganda during the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup in the West Indies last month. Today, he actually owns Nyakasura Cricket Club, a six-year-old creation.
And on Sunday, Nyakasura began their quest for top-flight status with Thawi scoring a century of 114 runs off 124 balls for a 105-run victory via Duckworth & Lewis (D/L) Method against the Aziz Damani Development II side in the National Men’s Division Two 50-Over League at Lugogo Oval.
Also the coach, Thawi led by example with an immaculate innings that comprised nine boundaries and four sixes.
“It is all by God’s grace,” he said. “I did more importantly, for the boys in the team to learn,” said the 39-year-old.
“Our aim is to take Nyakasura to the top tier and then try bring another development side from Karago village in Fort Portal,” he added.
Opting to bat first, Nyakasura were 59-2 midway the 10th over after opener Charles Musemeza (29-run-a-ball) had fallen to Crispus Muhereza (3/42).
With Thawi and U-19 national captain Pascal Murungi at the crease, they shared a 79-run partnership before the latter departed with a 36-ball 48 at the end of the 20th over.
Thawi shared the crease again with Brian Asaba (13 off 17) and Joseph Baguma (52 off 62) before Muhereza bowled him out, leaving the board at 288-5 at 45.3 overs.
Whereas Damani’s opening bowler Majid Musa (4/58) took charge of the tail end, Nyakasura coasted to 303-9 after the allotted overs.
Damani’s coach Jackson Ogwang must have certainly felt the target was too big to meet. However, the afternoon downpour in Kampala forced umpires to reduce the score to 247 runs in 29 overs.
Only five Damani youngsters exceeded double digits with Bosco Akena (23 off 26) standing out as Baguma (3/31), Matthew Musinguzi (3/25) and Innocent Mwebaze (2/34) held grip.
In the Division One, old guard Wanderers capitalized on SKLPS’s wobbly batting to ease to a five-wicket win inside 17.4 overs at Entebbe.
Here, Wanderers’ skipper Abu Seguya hit a half-century of 50 runs off 48 balls after SKLPS had been bowled out for 77 runs in 31.1 overs thanks to Ivan Kakande’s solid five-over spell worth 3/13 and Zubair Tembo’s stellar figures of 4/10 and three maidens in 49 deliveries.
NATIONAL MEN’S 50-OVER LEAGUE
WEEKEND RESULTS
DIVISION ONE
SKLPS 77/10 Wanderers 78/5
(Wanderers won by 5 wickets)
DIVISION TWO
Nyakasura 303/9 Aziz Damani Dev’t II Team 141/10 [247]
(Nyakasura won by 105 runs via D/L)
