Waiswa gets Challengers off to T20 flyer

Kenneth Waiswa knew he was struggling with batting form at the end of last year. The rough patch bothered him but the top-order batsman never gave in.

His fight back has come to the fore in both national and club colours. After scoring a 96-ball 101* ton - the only century during the Cricket Cranes’ tour of Qatar over a week ago - Waiswa got his new club Challengers off to a flying start in the UCA Twenty20 Cup.

The former Aziz Damani player top-scored for his side in both morning and afternoon matches helping Challengers to a winning start of 21 runs and six wickets respectively over Patidar Samaj in the Division One rankings at the weekend.

“It’s about keeping it simple and enjoying the good times as they come,” Waiswa explained about his recent form. “Having the backing of the team on and off the pitch has also been important in getting along,” he said.

First, Waiswa scored 35 runs off 34 balls to help Challengers 113-8 after the allotted overs with a 25-run partnership between him and Calvin Watuwa (31* off 28) coming for the fifth wicket.

“I wanted to go to a team where I wanted to be the main guy with the bat, to regain my longevity concentration where if I get out early, the team will struggle to get runs and I believe Challengers will give me that this season looking at the team that we have,” Waiswa said of his transfer.

“In the morning, I discussed with Watuwa that it was hard to hit boundaries so we had to run hard in between wickets for us to get defendable runs on board for the team and that didn’t change for the afternoon game as well because the wicket was still turning and staying very low,” he added.

Patidar stopped at 92-9 in the chase with Waiswa picking figures of 2/19, Cosmas Kyewuta took 2/16 while Siraje Nsubuga got 2/8. In the afternoon, Patidar set 99-9 thanks to opener Navin Pindoria’s half-century of 66 runs off 59 balls.

Yet, Waiswa replied in Challengers’ chase with his own unbeaten half-ton of 51 runs off 57 balls with three boundaries and two sixes to cap a fine day.  

“I believe and feel it’s going to be a good season and taking more responsibility to grow my game more and transfer that to the national team in crucial games.

Challengers are title contenders but it’s very early to look there I guess, we need to keep doing the simple things every game,” Waiswa noted.

UCA T20 CUP

RESULTS

DIVISION ONE

Challengers 113/8 Patidar 92/9

(Challengers CC won by 21 runs)

Patidar 99/9 Challengers 102/4

(Challengers won by 6 wickets)