Match Summary: Uganda vs Nigeria
- Nigeria 99 all out
- Uganda 100/1
- Uganda won by 9 wickets
Cricket Cranes picked up their second consecutive win in Namibia to keep their T20 World Cup dream alive with a nine-wicket victory against Nigeria.
Without going into the maths of the passage, Uganda now in second place, needs two more victories against Kenya and Rwanda to qualify for the World Cup.
The manner in which they went about the chase clearly shows they are reading from that script because Uganda chased down 100 inside 17.3 overs taking their time without focusing on the Net Run Rate.
Nigeria won the toss and elected to bat first but some disciplined bowling from the Ugandans kept things tight with the West Africans resorting to stealing singles to keep the scoreboard ticking.
Dinesh Nakrani had struggled to pick wickets before the qualifiers but he has grown in leaps and bounds in this tournament and his 3/20 won him the player of the match award. Bilal Hassun (2/12) and Alpesh Ramjani (2/20) offered support as the Nigerians were cleaned out at 99.
In the response, Simon Ssesazi scratched around and could only find six but from thereon, Ronak Patel (60 not out) and Roger Mukasa (28) put on 76 off 80 balls. Even the threat of rain never bothered the two as they continued to chip away at the total eventually getting home with 15 balls to spare. Ronak played himself into form ahead of a crucial clash with Kenya.
The win pushes Uganda into second place but tied on the same points with Kenya which makes the meeting between the two on Wednesday a winner-takes-all affair. A win for Uganda will be enough to see them through to their first World Cup while a win for Kenya works in the favour of Zimbabwe who have a superior Net Run Rate to both Kenya and Uganda.
The World Cup dream is very much alive for Uganda as they continue to keep up with Namibia the only unbeaten side in the tournament.
