By Faith Munezero
Results Summary
Tornado CC 214/8 in 40 overs (Cyrus Kakuru 60 off 45, Brian Adriko 32 off 60 and 4/32 in 8 overs) beat Africa Cricket Club (ACC) 168/10 in 36.4 overs (Emmy Edaku Odeng 44 off 47 and 2/41, Brian Kiiza 34 off 64, Marvin Kitamirike 3/31 in 8 overs) by 46 runs.
Player of the match: Brian Adriko (Tornado CC)
The season could not have ended better for league heads, Tornado CC. The team has been on form all season, mostly sharing the top two spots with close rivals Patidar, having beaten them narrowly by the net run rate.
With early morning rains resulting in washouts at the Budo and Entebbe ovals, Tornado had one final opportunity to win the title with Patidar's fate already sealed.
The Kyambogo oval also had its share of the morning rains but play continued albeit the overs reduced from 50 to 40. Africa won the toss and opted to field, giving Tornado the chance to set the pace. There was good performance from openers Cyrus Kakuru (60 off 45) and Allan Ssembatya (22 off 29) getting the team to a flying start with 65 runs within nine overs before the latter was dismissed.
With quick running between wickets, the next pair added a rapid 34 runs in the next eight overs pushing Tornado to 111 runs for the loss of three wickets all thanks to ACC skipper Marvin Kitamirike (3/31).
The steady climb continued despite efforts from Emmy Odeng (2/41) and Aggrey Kintu (2/34) seeing the batsmen pile on 104 more runs by the end of the innings, with vital contributions from Brian Adriko (32 off 60), Cosmas Kyewuta (25 off 17) and John Gabula (25 off 37).
The second innings kicked off to a slow start for ACC though with an early wicket in the second oval adding salt to injury. However Emmy Odeng (44 off 47) and Brian Kiiza (34 off 64) rose up to the challenge, getting the team from four runs in four overs to 79 runs in 18 overs before the second dismissal. At this point, Tornado tightened their bowling with player of the match Brian Adriko (4/32) leading the way, followed by Maxwell Thorach (3/42) picking two more wickets in the next six overs as Africa clocked the triple digits mark.
But the ghost of early wickets visited again, having Jjunju Gadaffi (31 of 41) dismissed just as the ship was steadying. Quarish Kasujja (17 off 16) was another batsman's time cut short and proved to be the last resistance to the bowling pack. The next five wickets came easy for the champions using all of three overs to wrap up the match and their season with it.
The match saw commendable fielding from both sides and batting display that could have had the game go either way but the early and premature wickets proved to be Africa's Achilles’ heel, thus awarding Tornado CC title of Division 2 Champions.
