After Swamibapa’s victory against the defending champions Kanbis and Sikh Uion’s success against the Stray Lions, the 2 teams were set to face each other in the final of the Harilal Shah Memorial T20 Cricket Tournament.
The competition is very high according to the Convener of the Tournament and the Outdoor Sports secretary of Nairobi Gymkhana. They admit there were quite a few nail-biting games so far and they didn’t expect anything less from the Tournament final. Swamibapa faced Sikh Union in an amazing encounter this Saturday, November 12th, at Nairobi Gymkhana.
A fair game
The final was officiated by 2 great Kenyan umpires: David Odhiambo and Subhash Modi. Odhiambo participated in 3 ODI Games and 7 T20 International matches during a 3-year period (2012-2015). Modi served as the chairman, secretary and treasurer of the Kenya Cricket Umpires and Scorers Association. Modi has actually been a cricket player for the Kenyan team a very long time ago in 1969. That being said, it’s easy to understand that the game was officiated in a fair manner by these 2 skilled umpires.
A surprising defeat
Swamibapa had 5 national level team players: Morris Ouma, Elijah Otieno, Alex Obanda, Nehemiah Odhiambo and James Ngoche. The manager himself said “we have the cream of players” and all they have to do to secure a victory is “get serious.” It seems however that the manager was a bit too confident in his team’s abilities. In spite of having all these national T20 players, Swamibapa lost against Sikh Union.
Swamibapa’s opening batsman, Alex Obanda did his best but he could not prevent a failure even though everybody expected him to bring victory to Swamibapa as he did against Kanbis in the semi-finals. Obanda’s 55 came off 47 balls with 4 fours and 3 sixes. They had 121 runs by the time their batsmen were sent back to the pavilion. A few players have actually scored double digit figures. We are talking about Naman Patel (21 of 21), Maurice Ouma (10) and Saumil Patel (10).
Gurdeep Sign took 2/9 while Frank Nsubuga took 1/17. The latter is a Ugandan player who signed with Sikh Union. Sikh Union beat Swamibapa when people least expected it. Unfortunately, there is no cash prize for the Twenty20 Championship winners but as one of the organizers, Rikesh Pamnani says, the best players will receive some money for their outstanding performance.
Upcoming events
Everybody knows Africans love cricket games. They will soon be able to enjoy the Zimbabwe Tri-Nation Series where Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and the West Indies will face each other for the 1st place. On November 14, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka will open the tournament. Two days later, Sri Lanka plays with the West Indies.
On November 19, it’s Zimbabwe’s turn to face the West Indies and 2 days later they will play again with Sri Lanka. On November 23rd, Sri Lanka and West Indies face off and on November 25th, you will watch the game between Zimbabwe and West Indies. The final will take place on November 27th, at 7 a.m. GMT.