- Uganda 192/3
- Malawi 75/6
- Uganda won by 117 runs
Cricket Cranes made light work of Malawi in the 5th-place playoff semifinal with a thumping win by 117 runs.
The win set up a final game against West African rivals Nigeria on Saturday which will be the final game for the Cricket Cranes at the T20 World Cup Qualifiers.
Uganda won the toss and elected to bat first, a change from the usual norm of bowling first. Uganda made one change to the side that won against Botswana with Cosmas Kyewuta making way for Innocent Mwebaze.
Ronald Lutaaya and Robinson Obuya didn’t last long but a 140-run partnership between Sumeet Verma (88) and Raghav Dhawan (50 not out) anchored the scoring to take Uganda to their highest total of the tournament, 193/3 in their 20 overs.
There was a period in the game where things were slow for Uganda but Sumeet found a gear and took more chances that rewarded him. He raced to his half-century inside 24 balls, a record for the fastest half-century for a Ugandan batter in T20i.
Malawi was never interested in the run chase and just came out to bat out their full quota of 20 overs. Uganda was left in the heat with no intent shown by Malawi and the only reward for Uganda was the six wickets with Alpesh Ramjani claiming 4/13 while Innocent Mwebaze and Dinesh Nakrani claimed a wicket each.
Uganda will face Nigeria in the 5th-Place Playoff on Saturday, which is their final game of what has been an underwhelming series.
Namibia and Zimbabwe booked their World Cup tickets after defeating East Africans Tanzania and Kenya, respectively.
