1st Warm-Up Game: Uganda vs Namibia
- Namibia 205/6
- Uganda 112/8
- Namibia won by 93 runs
Cricket Cranes went down by 93 runs in their warm-up game against the Eagles of Namibia, a reality check for Uganda, just a few days before their opening game of the T20 World Cup qualifiers.
Namibia won the toss and elected to bat first. Despite Juma Miyagi striking early, a second wicket partnership worth 67 runs repaired the damage and even after getting rid of the dangerous Gerhard Erasmus for nothing, Namibia never slowed down.
All Rounder JJ Smit (58) and Ruben Trumpelmann (32) plundered nine maximums in quick time that helped Namibia post an imposing total of 205/6 in their 20 overs.
Alpesh Ramjani (2/27), Henry Ssenyondo (1/17), Juma Miyagi (1/32) and Cosmas Kyewuta (2/62) were the bowlers among the wickets.
In the run chase, Uganda was reduced to 27/3 inside 5 overs and unfortunately, they failed to kick on from there. Raghav Dhawan (16), Alpesh Ramjani (18) and Riazat Ali (14) had some starts but nothing was converted to amount to a challenge for Uganda.
It was a humbling defeat for Uganda, who failed to kick on due to a poor start.
The Cricket Cranes will need to forget the result quickly, especially against a team they are very likely to come up against in the semifinals.
The batting sometimes can fail, but for Uganda, the worry will be the number of runs they leaked to Namibia. Uganda prides itself in being very tidy with its bowling and if they can have the control they have been accustomed to in the past, they will be able to do well in the tournament.
The Cricket Cranes will play a final warm-up game against Malawi on Wednesday before getting down to business on Friday against hosts Zimbabwe.
