Kenya fall to Uganda in ICC Continent Cup tie

Kenya batsman Nelson Odhiambo and Rwanda's Zappy Bimenyimana (left) in action on Friday. [Jonah Onyango, Standard]

Kenya lost its first match at the ongoing ICC Continent Cup T20 Africa tournament at the Nairobi Gymkhana on Tuesday.

Uganda beat Kenya by 47 runs to keep their hopes alive in the tournament.

Uganda, who had won the toss and elected to bat first, scored 175 runs for the loss of seven wickets.

Kenya replied with 128 runs, losing seven wickets in the process.

Riazat Ali of Uganda emerged the man of the match with 43 runs off 31 balls.

"We could have restricted the Ugandans to around 150 runs, this could have been a good target to chase," Kenya captain Rakep Patel told Standard Sports.

"The pitch is now getting slow due to the many games played, this has made the scores come low, they are not playing like 180 or 200 runs."

Patel admitted Kenya lacked good partnership, especially in the middle batting order, in the match and this cost them the game.

"Formidable partnerships could have helped us to narrow the scores," he said.

"The Ugandans really bowled and resisted well, they had good fielding. They were very consistent, we too just need to get our plans well going forward."

The skipper assured they will lessen their mistakes in their second inning against Rwanda today.
Uganda captain Brian Masaba was elated with the victory against Kenya but reminded his side not to go overboard with the celebrations as there are still lots of fixtures to be tackled.

"We played better than our last game against Kenya on Thursday. Today we had plans in place and they worked perfectly well. We gave Kenya pressure and maintained that intensity to the end," Masaba said.

The Ugandans made sure they kept threatening balls away from veteran player Collins Obuya who hurt them last week, a contest the Ugandans lost by 88 runs.

"The trick is we kept the balls away from Obuya's strong areas as we knew he is a very important player for Kenya; he brings experience coupled with lots of runs to the team," Masaba said.

Kenya will battle Rwanda as Uganda tackle Botswana in their second innings today.