Kanbis retain title after shaking off Gymkhana in final

Kanbis successfully defended their title with a 15-run victory over hard-fighting Nairobi Gymkhana in the Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association (NPCA) T20 tournament final at Nairobi Sikh Union yesterday.

With only a target of 176 to win, Gymkhana could only muster 160 all out in the allotted 20 overs despite determined lower-order contributions from siblings Lucas Oluoch (37) and Martin Okoth (30). Once again Kanbis bowlers shared the honours by putting brakes on Gymkhana’s surge to maiden title at regular intervals.

Gymkhana qualified for the finals after beating Swamibapa by four wickets in the Qualifier Two match played at the same venue on Saturday

Gymkhana, who were asked to field after losing the toss, began well—dismissing Dhiren Gondaria with the board on six but a second wicket stand of 63 runs between skipper Rajesh Bhudia (27) and wicket keeper Ankit Hirani (42) gave them a good platform towards a good total. Ramesh Mepani and Sachin Bhudia added on 29 and 36 respectively to get their side to 142 with three overs to play.

Rakep Patel and Sachin Bhudia remained unbeaten as they set Kanbis a target of eight an over.

The chase needed a good start and an opening stand of 22 runs between Karan Kaul and Rushab Patel seemed to have given them exactly that before Gondaria broke it with the dismissal of Rushab on 20.

Gymkhana went on to lose three more wickets for 23 runs and were on 77 for 6 half-way through the inning. With 38 balls to play, Gymkhana were 94 runs short of the target and it took effort from siblings—Oluoch and Okoth— to bring back hope in their side. The two hit four sixes and five boundaries as the target decreased with every ball. But with Kanbis fielders not letting the title get off their cabinet and the number of balls not doing Gymkhana any favour, they fell 15 runs short.

Despite the loss, Oluoch was happy with his team’s performance. “We are happy with how we performed. Nobody gave us a chance but we believed in ourselves. We were sure if we play as a team and try to improve with each match, we will get far and that is exactly what happened,” Oluoch said.

The left arm bowler said the top order needed to stay a bit longer in the middle for them to get the required total.

“We were not afraid of the total. We psyched ourselves up that if we stay in the middle for long, we will do it. But we were not able to do it. We lost wickets so quickly at the top,” he said.