Match Summary
Chairman's Select v Saudi Arabia
7 overs
Chairman's Select 52/4 Zephaniah Katungi (25) Roger Olipa (11) Muhammad Afzal (2/8)
Saudi Arabia 53/3 Imran Arif (27 not out) Trevor Bukenya (1/5)
Saudi Arabia won by 7 wickets
The one off t20 game of the Saudi Arabia tour to Uganda ended up being a 7 over affair due to a persistent afternoon downpour. When the Simon Kintu and James Bamulese umpires declared the pitch fit for play, Saudi Arabia won the toss and put in the hosts to bat first.
Zephaniah Katungi and Falak Sher opened the batting for the Chairman Select and they were up against the fast Abu Haraira. Zephaniah upper cut him for four off the 4 ball of the innings but that was most of the opening stand. Falak got off the mark at the beginning of the second over after he was put down at mid off, the pair was clumsy running between the wickets and survived close run out calls inside the first two overs.
Falak was first man back in the hut and after he could not deal with Abu Haraira's blistering yorker. Rogers Olipa joined Zephaniah Katungi and the two added impetus to the scoring, Olipa got off the mark hitting Usman Ali straight back over his head. Zephaniah then clobbered a big six into the Saudi Arabia tent as the Chairman's select was running out of overs to post a competitive total.
Zephaniah fell at 44/2 with 10 balls left to end the inning and this took the the steam out of the Chairman's Select batting, the other batsmen only added 8 runs with the Chairman's Select XI finishing on 52/4.
In the chase the experienced Saudi Arabia side paced their innings to perfection winning the game with 9 balls to spare. Imran Arif (27 not out) was destroyer in chief carrying his bat and he was there till the end scoring the winning runs clobbering Falak Sher for two huge sixes to close out the win for the visitors.
The only reward for the hosts were the wickets gotten by Jonathan Ssebanja and Trevor Bukenya with the latter bowling a beautiful inswinger to confuse Moazam Shaukat.
Rogers Olipa will sleep knowing that if he had held onto the chance given by Imran Arif when he was on five, the result of the game may not have changed much but the game would have closer in terms of being of being a contest.
The visitors will tomorrow take on the senior cricket cranes squad in a 50 over game in Kyambogo. Action starts at 10am.