National men’s cricket team head coach David Obuya says he is under no pressure to deliver ahead of the first round of the World Cup T20 qualifiers slated for November 15-18 in Rwanda.
Obuya is, however, bullish that the team will perform well in the first round of the T20 qualifiers.
Obuya said the team resumed training last week and so far, everything is working out well. However, he cited the weather challenges as their biggest threat.
“I am confident we will finish among the top two and qualify for the next round. The training has been good and the boys are responding well and they are in good shape. We have no injury threats at the moment and I hope things will remain that way,” Obuya said.
He added that he is not under the pump as he believes their opponents do not pose any threats in their quest for top honours.
“I do not feel any pressure at all because I believe we have good players. If we qualify for the next round, we will meet countries like fast-rising Uganda,” he said, adding that they will just take a game at a time.
During a previous interview, the veteran coach mentioned that bowling was their major undoing during the Africa Twenty 20 Cup Final in South Africa. He, however, noted that they are already working on that bit of the game and things are looking up.
He said the team has been participating in club cricket and tournaments which have been very impactful in the growth of the team.
He also revealed that they will be looking to host a couple of internal tournaments before they jet out of the country on November 15.
“I can confidently say bowling is not a pain in the neck as it was before. We want to maximize our time here and polish every aspect. We also want to organise some internal games just to make sure we are on course,” Obuya concluded.
Elsewhere, Purple Dot Ndovus’ extended their winless streak in the Swaminarayan ProTwenty Cricket to four matches following a 112-run defeat to Hari OM Titans at Cutchi Leva Samaj grounds on Sunday night.
The Rushab Patel-led team suffered a horrendous batting collapse to continue languishing at the bottom of the points table.
After winning the toss and opting to field first, Titans restricted Ndovus’ score to 153. After being promoted to the opening slot in place of Dwayne Smith, Dhyey Patel top-scored with 37, but he didn’t get much support from his teammates.
Aezaz Kothariya, Narendra Kalyan and Sachin Bhudia scored 20 and 19s respectively but both were unable to convert.
In the end, a couple of boundaries from Tarandeep Singh and Gerald Mwendwa took Giants over the 150-run mark.
For Ndovus, Nischay Kerai was the most successful with the wickets of
Smith, Patel and Kothariya. Bar Yagnik Pindoria, Ndovus’ bowlers got at least a wicket.
