After losing to Namibia by one run on Saturday afternoon, Mackenzie Ayato put on a woman of the match performance to guide Uganda to a three wicket victory against Tanzania on Sunday at Lugogo.
With all eyes on Tanzania who had dismissed fellow contenders Namibia and Kenya in their two opening matches at the ICC Africa T20 tournament, it’s the wobbly Mackenzie who stole the show. She was instrumental in limiting Tanzania’s total as she brought opener Asha Daudi’s innings to an end with only four runs to her name.
With roles changed and now batting at number nine, Mackenzie came on with Uganda under a lot of pressure to chase a modest 75 set by Tanzania who had won the toss and chosen to bat. Mackenzie who had sustained an injury while trying to rescue runs from a Tanzanian boundary bound ball, came on with none of her predecessors managing a double figured total.
Tanzania had managed to contain Uganda’s chase with Barbara Mukankusi dismissed for four (LBW), opening partner Carol Namugenyi (caught) went for nine. Usually had hitting Scovia Akello (bowled) made a swift exit when she went for a duck off two balls, Stella Atim was trapped LBW for five, Franklyn Najjumba was caught for four, Mary Nanderenga departed for a duck and Flavia Laker was bowled for two.
With the nail biters on cloud nine and suspense building, Mackenzie sensibly partnered Christine Aryemo (17) with the former scoring an essential 23 off 25 balls for no loss to hand Tanzania (75/5) their first defeat of the tournament. Uganda (76/7) wrapped it up with 2.5 overs left on board.
“I was under pressure when in came on because of the way we were losing wickets and my injury. But I had to endure as a sports person because I knew the game was winnable. I took it slow at the beginning but realized we needed runs, so I pulled myself together and that’s how I managed to score those runs” said woman of the match, Mackenzie.
In other games played on Sunday, Kenya chased Sierra Leone’s 49 all out with an unbeaten 53 at Lugogo in the morning. At Kyambogo, Namibia (127/8) beat Nigeria (48) by 79 runs.
With two fixtures left for each team, the race for top honors is heating up as the victory over Tanzania took Uganda top on four points but the same number of points is shared by Kenya, Namibia and Tanzania in that order with all the four having two wins and one loss. Uganda lead because of a superior Net Run rate.
Action continues on Monday morning 09:30 local time with Uganda needing victory against Kenya at Kyambogo to keep hopes high as Tanzania face fifth placed Nigeria at Lugogo at the same time. Sierra Leone will take on Namibia at Lugogo at 02:30 PM.