Africa Under-19s Cricket Championship's 3rd Round Update

The third round of matches in the Africa Under 19 Cricket Championships saw Uganda play Namibia at Kyambogo SC, and Kenya take on East and Central Africa at Lugogo SC.

With both Uganda and Namibia suffering unexpected defeats in the previous round, this was a must win match for both teams.

Namibia won the toss and put Uganda in to bat and picked up the early wicket of Lawrence Sembatimba. Other opener Edward Musenze played a sensible innings, but none of the other Ugandan batsman were able to keep the scoreboard ticking over. Each of the Ugandan middle order batsmen got themselves in, but struggled against tight bowling and alert fielding. For Namibia, Greef took 4-14 from 5.1 overs and Swanepoel bowled his 10 overs for 11 runs. Uganda were all out for 157 in 46.1 overs.

The Namibian reply started well with Swanepoel and Greef scoring freely. When Greef fell for 21, Ludik joined his captain and maintained the scoring momentum. Uganda used 8 different bowlers in an attempt to break the partnership, but it was not until the match was almost over that Geoffrey Serunkuma bowled Ludik. Fittingly the winning runs were hit by the captain Swanepoel who finished undefeated on 77.

The other match was the closest of the tournament so far. Kenya batted first and their total of 168 was based largly on an undefeated 71 from Aga. Supported only by Timothy Muange and later Nehemiah Odhiambo, Aga played shots all round the wicket, and was the only batsman to get to grips with another accurate bowling performance from East and Central Africa.

Kenya started well in the field, removing three of the top five batsmen for only three runs between them. An excellent partnership between U R Patel and J Patel steadied the East and Central African innings, with both batsmen running well between the wickets.

Following the dismissal of U R Patel three further wickets went quickly, and the Kenyans came back in to the match. Fifteen runs were needed from four overs with only two wickets in hand. Msiagi joined J Patel at the wicket and the two managed to score the winning runs of the final ball of the penultimate over. J Patel finished 45 not out, with the East and Central African score boosted by a total of 37 extras.