Challengers finished an underachieving season by their standards with a comfortable 163 runs win over Charity in Lugogo on Sunday.
With no threat of relegation Charity didn’t put much of a fight and seemed to only be going through the motions.
Challengers were denied the title last season by board room politics after being the most dominant team but they got some consolation winning the T20 crown having missed out on the bragging rights of winning the league.
They invested in the team in the off season bringing proven quality in Shahzad Kamal from Damani and Irfan Afridi from KICC and added speedstar David Wabwire to their already star studded team.
Apart from losing Derrick Bakunzi to Strikers and Thaha Ahmed to Wanderers most of last seasons core remained. Captain Ivan Thawitemwira, batsmen Arthur Kyobe, Hamu Kayondo, Aneef Sha, Nasir Ahmed and last season MVP Henry Ssenyondo.
Challengers was supposed to challenge new boys Damani and league winners Tornado B for the title but the best laid plans sometimes never turn out as intended as they had a torrid start to their campaign.
A poor Division 3 tournament for Uganda impacted greatly on Challengers as most of their national team stars lost some gloss culminating in losses to teams that they should have beaten like the 2 run loss to Kutchi Tigers and the failure to chase 93 set by KICC.
The 2 run loss to KICC marked the end of Ivan Thawitemwiras reign as captain with Henry Ssenyondo handed the mantle mid way the season.
National team opening batsman Arthur Kyobe seems to agree about their slow start;
We have gained momentum at the end but our batsmen did not do well at the beginning and we have all come to the party at the end.
This confidence from Kyobe comes on the back of a century he scored against Partidar 2 weeks ago.
However, Challengers has gained momentum at the backend of the season with 3 wins in a row and this momentum could be key in defence of their T20 crown.
Man on Match for his 89 runs on Sunday Hamu Kayondo agrees they have underachieved but they have momentum which can be good in defence of their T20 crown;
As a team it has been disappointing because at the start we thought we had the best team and we thought we would take the trophy.
We lost so many games we shouldn’t have especially by small margins and small mistakes.
As batsmen we didn’t pitch up when it mattered and it cost the team but fortunately we have managed to put together some great performances towards the end and maybe we can carry that form into T20 and next season.
Challengers defeated Charity by 163 runs to seal a top 4 finish.
They will start defence of their T20 crown against Kampala Pirates on Saturday afternoon and then SKLPS on Sunday afternoon at Lugogo.
Match Summary
Challengers 277/9 in 50 Overs beat Charity TFC 114/10 in 34.1 Overs by 163 Runs.
Charity won the toss and opted to bowl
BATTTING CHALLENGERS: Hamu Kayondo 89(88), Aneef Shah 73(78)
BOWLING CHARITY: Jonathan Sebanja 3/45 in 8 overs, Innocent Ndawula 2/29 in 5 overs
BATTING CHARITY: Lawrence Sempijja 69(111)
BOWLING CHALLENGERS: Richard Odong 4/35 in 9 overs, Naseer Mohammed 2/24 in 5 overs
MOM: Hamu Kayondo 89(88)
