With nothing to lose but pride, one would expect recently crowned UCA national league champions Partidar to take it slow on the last day of the season but that wasn’t the case as the champions put the icing on the cake with a 57 run victory over Wanderers at Lugogo on Sunday.
Wanderers who came determined to put one over Partidar for the earlier defeat in the season won the toss and chose to field. They made their intentions clear as Deus Muhumuza (3/25) dismissed Roger Mukasa for a duck. This was a huge relief as Mukasa had scored the one and only century of the 2011 season against them in the corresponding fixture.
“I put the team under a lot of pressure by getting out early in the game but i guess everything worked out in the end for us” said Mukasa.
Wanderers then restricted Partidar to a humble 147 all out, with former national captain Akbar Baig (25) and Mitesh Patel (34) top scoring. It could have been worse for Partidar if Wanderers hadn’t recklessly dropped several catches with usually excellent fielder, Davis Karashani dropping two successive ones at a crucial stage in the match.
With all the batting prowess at Wanderers, expectations were extremely high as they went in to chase the supposedly low total. Partidar however had a different version of the story as they ripped through Wanderers batting order with only captain, Denis Musali (21) scoring above the 20 run mark. Akbar (4/26) and Ankit Patel (4/28) inflicted the biggest damage.
Partidar finished on 82 points in 14 matches with 14 victories.This was a massive 26 above Wanderers in second.
In other matches on the final day,Frank Nsubuga’s impressive bowling figures of 6/18 could not save his Tornado(62)side from defeat as they lost to Charity (65/7) at Kyambogo cricket oval.
The top top four clubs: Partidar, Wanderers, Charity and Tornado will be facing off in the champions trophy come January.