Uganda crowned Continent Cup T20 Africa champions
Cricket
By
Ochieng Oyugi
| Jun 22, 2023
Uganda are the winners of the Continent Cup T20 Africa Cricket tournament that concluded at the Nairobi Gymkhana on Wednesday.
The Pearl of Africa nation sliced Kenya by one run to lift the two-week long showpiece.
They also won the man of the match through Dinesh Nakkrani who had 42 runs off 31 balls.
The visitors also bagged the player of the tournament award which went to Riazat Ali Shah who had a great show in most of the matches.
During the crunch final, Uganda won the toss and decided to bat first, scoring 125 runs for the loss of ten wickets in 20 overs.
In reply, Kenya notched 124 runs for the loss of seven wickets in their 20 overs.
Veteran Collins Obuya scored 44 runs in 51 balls in the process for Kenya.
"We bowled well, we were so well into the game till the 16th over," Kenya's captain Rakep Patel told Standard Sports.
"We didn't capitalise on the game to hit the boundaries. We also didn't have consistency in the match, especially in areas we felt we could have done better in.
"We could have tried to finish the game early when they were at 24/5 but unfortunately we let them get back into the game," added Rakep who has called for early training for the Kenyan team ahead of the ICC World Cup Qualifiers in Namibia in November.
Uganda captain Brian Masaba said the victory was very special to them as it took a lot of character to bag the win.
"I think Kenya didn't play badly, it was just an unfortunate day in office for them as the margin of the win is so narrow, the game could have gone either way," Masaba said.
"We pledged to build on this performance henceforth till we head to Namibia for the World Cup qualifiers."