Sangani snares five Kanbis wickets to end five year trophy drought
Mitesh Sangani snared five wickets as Swamibapa ended their five year trophy drought with a hard fought 56 run win over Kanbis to win the Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association (NPCA) 40 Overs Knockout tournament at Nairobi Gymkhana on Sunday.
Chasing 247 runs for victory Kanbis fell to 190 with three overs to spare in a well attended match watched by among others Cricket Kenya chairperson Jackie Janmohammed.
Sangani stole the limelight with a superb show of bowling as Swamibapa wrapped up a first major title win in five years.
Sangani a medium pace bowler grabbed a career five for 40 as Swamibapa who boosts of six national team players registered their first win against Kanbis in four attempts.
After 15 overs, Kanbis were relatively comfortable at 93 for one and were poised to hand Swamibapa another defeat but as soon as Lameck Onyango dismissed Rakep Patel for 61 off 43 balls and Narendra Patel was trapped by Sangani, on 48 from 71 balls, Kanbis’ plot of winning the match was jolted.
After the dismissal of the two openers, Kanbis lost seven wickets for 57 runs.
After the dismissal of the two and Rajesh Varsani for a duck, Kanbis middle batsmen thought of attacking Sangani and were in trouble as he kept taking them back to the pavilion.
Ramesh Mepani was the second wicket to fall to Sangani when he was simply caught at deep mid wicket by Onyango having scored 23 runs.
Vinod Rabadia managed nine before he too fell to Sangani-caught by Francis Otieno to leave Kanbis at 155 for 5.
Thirteen balls later, Dhiren Vekaria was left helpless as he saw his stumps re arranged by Sangani’s in swinger for nine runs.
Captain, Rajesh Bhudia was not spared either by Sangani’s good show as he was the fifth wicket for Sangani to leave Kanbis battling at 169 for seven after 33 overs.
Hiraj Parmar (2) and Jagdish Khetani (2) were then run out in quick succession to bury Kanbis hopes of winning the match to leave Kanbis at 184 for 9.
“This is a great moment for me. I am happy that I have been able to contribute to my team winning today. I am delighted that my performance has enabled my team to win a title after a while,” Sangani said.
Earlier an unbeaten half century from Francis “Franco’ Otieno, 46 from Maurice Ouma and a late cameo 30 from Nehemiah Odhiambo helped Swamibapa’s to 246 for seven.
Openers Alex Obanda and Nicholas Oluoch had started their side off well with an opening stand of 55.
They were at 82 for 3 after Mandela was bowled but Ouma and Otieno got the scores to 142 before Ouma was caught.
