Uganda cricket teens leave West Indies with heads high

Good ending. Opio goes for a shot ball. PHOTO/ICC

What you need to know:

  • Uganda featured at this global youth showpiece in 2004 and 2006 where they won just once in each edition.

Team Uganda departed the West Indies yesterday with their heads high after putting up a strong finish to take 13th place at the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup.
The Baby Cricket Cranes may have lost all their first six matches but they defeated Papua New Guinea (PNG) in the Plate play-off semi-final on Friday before flooring Scotland by 51 runs via Duckworth & Lewis Method (D/L) for 13th place on Sunday.

Uganda featured at this global youth showpiece in 2004 and 2006 where they won just once in each edition.
But coach Ivan Thawithemwira’s team scripted its own story with two victories at the weekend, culminating into the country’s best finish ever in the tournament.
Against PNG, only wicket-keeper Cyrus Kakuru raised his hand with a half-century of 65 runs off 59 balls before Uganda was bowled for 123 runs in 28 overs. The tail-end had aided John Kariko to 5/19.

But skipper Pascal Murungi set out the field in Test cricket format, that giving his bowlers Juma Miyaji (4/29), Joseph Baguma (3/30) and Matthew Musinguzi (2/29) chance to bowl out the Asians for a paltry 88 runs midway the 20th over.
During the 2006 show in Sri Lanka, Uganda lost the fight for 13th place to Ireland led by six wickets.
In the Carribean, Uganda set up a duel against the Scots and after a rain delay, the match was reduced to 43 overs.
And despite losing to the Scots by 107 runs in the warm-up match on January 10, Murungi was brave enough to opt to bat first.

Fahd Mutagana departed for a duck on the fifth ball but his fellow opener Ronald Opio (34 off 25) and Ronald Lutaaya (64 off 78) shared 60 runs for the second wicket.
Kakuru added another 31 runs off 39 deliveries but again, the tail end gifted orthodox bowler Jamie Cairns stellar figures of 6/24 and two maidens in 6.4 overs.
Left-hander Lutaaya stood tall again with six boundaries and two sixes, sharing another 75 runs with Murungi (49 off 43), who got dismissed a run shy of a half-ton.
Wicket-keeper Charlie Tear departed on the first ball, which set Miyaji (4/25) on course for the man-of-match honour.
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