Swamibapa marked their maiden appearance at their new home venue with a hard-fought 11 runs win over Kongonis as the 2019 NPCA Twenty20 tournament bowled off yesterday in Nairobi.
Playing for the first time at the newly constructed Jamhuri High School cricket oval, Swamibapa posted 152 for 4 on their way to victory.
For long, Swamibapa have had to play their home matches away with their last venue being Nairobi Jafferys.
Both teams had to endure long boundary on their way to their final total. Long was the boundary that only one six was hit in the entire 40 overs played.
Ifran Karim and Maurice Ouma were the stars with the bat for the home team with 45 and 39 runs respectively. The two put on 62 in eight overs for the second wicket which got them to 121 for 4 after 17.3 overs.
The two linked up in the 10th over after Joseph Owino had picked up three quick wickets to reduce them to 59 for 3.
In reply, Kongonis looked set to give the home team a bad start at their new home when they were on 94 for 3 with seven overs to play.
Their hopes were dented when Nicholas Oluoch was caught on 26 and were later crashed with eight balls to play when top scorer Javie Jevons (40) was run out with 22 runs required. Before moving to Jafferys, Swamibapa were using Ngara Sports Club as their home grounds. Prior to that, the 2018 T20 runners up had used Impala and Premier as their home grounds. Jamhuri becomes the fourth school ground to be host a cricket super league side. Kanbis use Eastleigh High School as home ground while Stray Lions and Obuya Academy use Peponi School and Lenana School respectively.
