Ruaraka Sports Club skipper Pushkar Sharma acknowledges they need to pull up their socks soon, rather than later, if they are to reverse their run of poor results.
After their second straight loss to leaders Stray Lions, Sharma admitted their batting needs a lot of improvement.
"We have to address it even though we have also spoken about it. It's not like we aren't aware of it," Sharma said.
He added that improving on this weakness in their game is easier said than done and confessed that the steps they have taken to rectify may take some time to bear fruit.
"Being aware of it is one thing and actively taking steps is a completely different thing. Even if they are, it has not paid off, not yet anyway," he said.
The home fans were treated to a familiar sight on Sunday when Ruaraka collapsed spectacularly at the hands of their guests.
After a strong foundation, wickets fell in a heap as one batsman after another perished. Chasing 267, it was deja vu as they went from 165 for 3 to 213 all out, losing their last seven wickets for 48 runs.
After Charith Jayampathi (3 for 47) and Gerald Mwendwa (2 for 42) had reduced the home team to 43 for 3 after seven overs, Zephaniah Arinaitwe and Nitish Hirani revived their chase with a fourth winning stand of 122 runs.
This stand gave them a hope of a fifth win of the season but as soon as it was broken in the 31st over by Jayampathi, all their hopes were crushed.
Even the availability of Ajinkya Beloshe (23) down the order was not enough to save them from a second straight loss to Stray Lions.
With Arinaitwe (85 off 77 balls) and Hirani (31 off 82 balls) proving too hard to break, skipper Hiren Varaiya used seven bowlers but it was taking long to get the breakthrough as the two positively surged towards victory.
Arinaitwe hit 10 boundaries and a six before he was brilliantly caught by Nitin Arvind at point. Even with the dismissal of the Ugandan international with 102 to win and Beloshe getting in the middle, Ruaraka still had big hopes of beating Stray Lions.
But to the shock of Ruaraka fans and the opposing team, Beloshe was a shadow of a player that almost gave them victory against Sir Ali Muslim Club ‘A’ as he ‘wasted’ a number of balls.
Where there were singles or doubles he opted not to run and where there was a ball to offer a shot he opted to leave it.
With this, it wasn’t a surprise when they could only manage to score 25 for 3 wickets after Arinaitwe was dismissed.
The run rate kept on rising but there was no urgency in Beloshe and by the time he was getting out trying to hook Mwendwa it was little too late.
Earlier on, Krishna Katukala played a match winning knock with his second ton in the NPCA Super league to hand his side what ended up as a comfortable total.
Katukala who scored a clinical 105 off 102 balls, shared two vital stands with Neil Mugabe (28) and Jayampathi (47) off 63 runs and 104 runs respectively as he lifted his side from 132 for 5 to total score of 267 with five balls to play.
