Cricket Cranes are African Champions up by 8 wickets against Tanzania

ACA Africa T20 Cup Challenge:

FINAL: Uganda v Tanzania

Toss: Uganda won the toss and elected to bowl 1st

Match Summary:

Tanzania 174/5 20 overs
Uganda 175/2 20 overs Riazat Ali Shah 98 not out Deus Muhumuza 50 Uganda won by 8 wickets

Tanzania won at least 35 overs of the whole game but when it came down to the final 5 overs the game turned in favor of Uganda as Riazat Ali Shah clobbered 24 runs off the 18th to bring the equation to 24 off 12 balls.

That situation made it any team’s game and whoever panicked would drop the ball, a misfiled on the 5th ball of the 19th over meant Uganda get 9 runs from the over instead of 5, therefore, requiring 16 off the final 6 balls.

A set Riazat Ali Shah didn’t need all six balls to score the balance with two big sixes and a couple between the wickets sealing a memorable victory. Uganda won the toss and elected to bowl 1st but that didn’t go according to plan as Tanzania got stuck in hitting the Uganda bowlers all over the pack, Tanzania was cruising at a healthy rate of 11 per over until Captain Brian Masaba and Alpesh Ramjani slowed things down for a while.

Tanzania eventually finished on 174/5, Deus Muhumuza with 2/15, and Juma Miyagi and Cosmas Kyewuta picking a wicket each. The chase didn’t get off to a great start for Uganda, Captain Brian Masaba trapped LBW in the 1st over but Simon Ssesazi and Deus Muhumuza (50) repaired the run chase but were still behind the required rate for long periods of time.

Simon Ssesazi (18) lost his wicket trying to up the ante and the arrival of Riazat Ali Shah didn’t move things up quickly. However, with the required rate up to 13, Riazat Ali Shah broke the shackles and took the attack to Tanzania who panicked up pressure to hand Uganda a win that looked secure for them for large parts of the game.

The win means that Uganda claims the Africa Cup without dropping a game with their last two games being the real tests of the whole tournament. The five wins should also improve Uganda’s 25th place in the global T20 rankings when the new rankings are released.