A half-ton and three wickets from new signing Vishal Kukade and Gurdeep Singh is what hosts Sir Ali Muslim Club needed to end their 15-year losing streak in the hands of Swamibapa.
A number of players have been tried and tested to end Swamibapa’s dominant run over Sir Ali but it only took a spirited knock from Kukade, in his debut match, and Gurdeep’s spin against his former club to bring the long run to an end in the second day of the Nairobi Invitational Twenty20 tournament.
Kukade’s 75 off 56 balls that had 10 boundaries and two sixes led the hosts to 155 before the skipper bagged three wickets to lay up a 25 runs win.
Coming in at four, he shared a third-wicket stand of 55 with Gurdeep that got them to 75 after 9.2 overs.
In reply, Swamibapa were inside the required run rate with openers Naman Patel and Maurice Ouma laying the platform with 43 in six overs. But the dismissal of Ouma and James Ngoche inside four balls halted their campaign.
Emmanuel Bundi and Patel looked set to get the visitors closer to the win with a third-wicket stand of 36 runs before Gurdeep struck.
He struck by dismissing Patel on 45 from 40 balls. He added two more by dismissing Nehemiah Odhiambo and Bundi with 43 required off 32 balls.
With Swamibapa fielding a ‘weakened’ batting side, it looked done and dusted but Bilal Rathod gave them slight hope with 23 off 10 balls. His dismissal in the 18th over was the final blow in Swamibapa’s chase as they managed only 130.
The win was second for Sir Ali who had beaten Ngara by seven runs in the first match the previous weekend.
Meanwhile, Ruaraka Sports Club beat Nairobi Gymkhana by 36 runs. After setting up 156 for 9, Ruaraka bowlers put a spirited fight to bowl out the home team for 120. Hitesh Rajit was the engineer in Ruaraka’s comfortable total with 52 from 29 balls that included three sixes and four boundaries.
Rajit shared a second-wicket stand of 72 runs with Nil Akash (27). Vaibhav Patil and Mukud Sardar added on 20 and 24 runs.
