Ruaraka Sports Club and Sir Ali Muslim are at peace with their underdog status as they come up against their fancied opponents, Swamibapa and Kanbis respectively in the semi-finals of the Hirani Telecom Twenty20 Cup today.
Ruaraka booked a place in the last four after finishing third in the preliminary stages of the inaugural event while Sir Ali finished fourth to book a place in the last four at Jamhuri High School.
“I’m not spending a lot of time worrying about what other people are thinking, whether we should be here or not,” said Ruaraka captain Harshit Vekaria.
He said his team will walk out this afternoon at Nairobi Gymkhana to prove their mettle against a strong and improved Swamibapa side.
“Swamibapa are a quality team, there’s no doubt. They’ve got match-winners right throughout their lineup but we have proved that we are not pushovers,” added Vekaria. “That’s the excitement, that’s the challenge in front of us. Hopefully, you’ll see what Ruaraka are made of out there as well, that ‘no-die’ attitude and standing up when we need to.”
Sir Ali skipper Gurdeep Singh also felt the underdog status suited his side.
“I guess this is a big match. The hype that tournament has received has been good and we expect the same on the pitch despite our rivals (Kanbis) having an upper hand and obviously getting big backing from the crowd,” Singh said. “But as Sir Ali, we are often the underdogs and I guess that’s a position we like to be in.”
The opening batsman said his side had earned their place in the last four with some good cricket and were braced for another characteristic outing against Kanbis.
“We’ve played some good cricket to get to the point where we are in a position to play a semi-final and then it all counts on the day so were looking forward to the challenge for sure,” he said.
Sir Ali proved that they are not pushovers when they beat Swamibapa on the first day of the tournament that has seen 10 teams taking part.
“As a team, we definitely want to be the side that spoil the party. We have already proved we can do that. We kind of pride ourselves on coming back from tough situations and scrap our way out of it and give ourselves an opportunity to win.”
