By Norbert Abbi
Results Summary
Uganda U19 296/3 in 20 overs (Zephaniah Arinaitwe 193 off 66, Perry Wazombe 57 off 23) Beat Swamibapa U19 84/7 in 20 0vers (Kerai Hadendra 26 off 28, Halai Divyan 22 off 18) by 212 Runs
Man of Match: Zephania Arinaitwe (Uganda U19)
The Uganda U19s tour to Nairobi, Kenya got off to a flier with a scintillating win over their opponents the Swamibapa U19s.
Uganda won the toss and elected to bat first and never in their wildest dreams did they ever think they would find it this easy. Right off the bat, the opening pair of Perry and Zephaniah got proceedings off in a very entertaining manner to the delight of everyone present at the Ruaraka Sports Club facility.
If getting 24 runs off the first over did not signal Zephaniah’s hunger, then the next 60 balls did as he exhibited brute force to get to a colossal 193 runs with a strike rate of 292%! His partner Perry was not silent either on the either side picking up where the other left off. He quickly got 57 in as little as 23 balls.
The pair lasted all of one hour on the crease but by the time Perry Fell, they had managed a whopping 176 run partnership in 12.2 overs. Some 20 balls later, Zephaniah fell at 193, seven runs short of a double century. This however did not stop the onslaught as the U19s then went on to set a record 296 runs from 120 balls.
The Swamibapa U19s walked off the field with their shoulders slouched for they knew chasing 296 runs would take a miracle. The Uganda U19s were equally relentless in their bowling seeing their opponents dismissed for 84 runs.
Kerai Hadendra (26 off 28) and Halai Divyan (22 off 18) knew it was pointless when they walked in to bat. They bid their time on the crease in the hopes that they could weather the storm and at least not give out all their wickets as well. The strategy briefly worked and the Ugandans had to suffer the frustrations of dot balls that the Swamibapa boys were glad to relinquish.
With four batsmen facing 101 balls in total, their efforts to frustrate the Ugandan bowlers bore some fruit as they lost all but three wickets in the process. Swamibapa were shown no mercy in the field but will be hoping tomorrow brings better tidings.
For the Uganda U19s, things could never get off to a finer start. The onus will be on them to maintain the momentum and continue to deal crushing blows to their opponents.