Chui book Rwenzori finals after beating Uganda's Knights

By  ERICK OCHIENG’

Kenya is set to play Uganda in the East Africa Cricket Competition finals today at the Simba Union grounds in Nairobi.

Kenya’s franchise, Rising Stars Chui is set to battle Uganda’s franchise Rwenzori Warriors in the finals after both teams successfully sailed through in their semis final matches played at the venue yesterday.

 Chui sailed to the finals by beating Uganda’s Nile Knights with 61 runs while Warriors won by 25 runs against Ndovus in the matches dubbed ‘Battles of Migingo’.

Chui’s Kamran Akmal’s 62 off 41 earned him the man of the match award and a spot in the finals.

Chui posted an imposing 171-5 in the semi-final against the Nile knights, thanks to  their Pakistan pair of Abdul Razzak and Akmal, who both scored half centuries.

 Akmal scored a brisk 60 off 41 balls. His opening partner, Irfan Karim fell cheaply yet again for 15 runs.

 This brought in the on-form Razzak who smashed his third consecutive fifty of the tournament with his 57 coming off just 25 balls with 5 sixes and 3 fours.

 Hiren Varaiya and Alfred Luseno added a meaningful 16 runs at the death to post the fighting score on a pitch that was visibly hard to bat on.

Needing almost 9 runs an over to win, the Knights never got a good start as they lost 4 quick wickets, with spin bowling seemingly causing them trouble of all sorts.

Chui captain Collins Obuya and Hiren Varaiya bagged 2 each to remove Arthur Kyobe for 7, Daniel Ruyange for 0, Richard Okia 4 and Ivan Thawimira for 0.

Frank Nsubuga and Davis Karashani steadied the innings with a useful 49 run partnership that was unluckily broken when Nsubuga got run out backing up at the non-strikers end.

His skipper soon followed him to the pavilion mistiming Luseno’s length delivery to be caught by Obuya at deep point, leaving the Knights struggling at 100-7 and requiring above 10 to win.

The tail end, facing a mammoth task found the going tough as Asadu Seiga, Farouk Ochimi and Deus Muhumuza all failed to get 66 off the last 3 overs.

At the end they (Knights) fell 61 runs short to be all out for 110. Varaiya, with 4-18 ably assisted by Obuya’s 2-18 and Razzak’s 2-10 were the pick of the bowlers for Chuis, as they won comprehensively.