Kenya team revived their chances of claiming a spot in the World Cricket League Division Two after beating their neighbours Uganda on Tuesday. This was Kenya’s first win at the Division 3 tournament in Oman after two consecutive losses to hosts Oman and USA.
Despite not being favourites on the day, the Kenyans comfortably beat the Cricket Cranes by 6 wickets with more than four overs to spare. The win mathematically keeps them in the tournament with a chance to finish among the top 2.
Uganda won the toss and chose to bat first, the first time they had chosen to do since the tournament started. However, this decision didn’t work out as planned as Roger Mukasa and Arnold Otwani were quickly tossed out.
Kenya’s Shem Ngoche and Sachin Bhudia took two wickets each, with the latter taking a vital sixth wicket against Dinesh Nakrani, who had knocked half-a-century off 71 balls.
At 33/3 in response, the Kenyans were in trouble but Irfan Karim, who was later named ‘Man of the Match’ alongside Nelson Odhiambo brought the match under control by scoring a combined 107 runs as they cruised to victory.
Up next for Kenya is Singapore today, who are currently occupying the third spot, then a final match against Denmark on Sunday, who have so far lost all their matches in the tournament.
Oman are the favourites to bounce back to Division Two while the second-place may be occupied by USA, who play Denmark today. The top two teams will be promoted to next year’s Division Two tournament while the other four teams will play in the 2019-2021 ICC Cricket World Cup Challenge League.
