Kongonis were the winners on Saturday when they ripped maximum points from their twenty20 match in Nairobi against Buffaloes by 49 runs while the rest of the twenty20 matches were both abandoned in Mombasa and Kampala.
Rakep Patel starred for the visitors with a 54-ball 86 to help Kongonis on its way to a commanding 166 off 20 overs. The Buffaloes needed to match that handsome contribution but only found consolation from skipper Collins Obuya’s 48-ball 57 before going down at home.
Abdul Rehman was the pick of the bowlers with 3/19 off his 4 overs and was ably assisted by man of the match Patel who grabbed 2 for 26.
On Sunday
Kongonis won over their rivals Nairobi Buffaloes yet again by 3 wickets in a closely fought encounter at the Nairobi Gymkhana Club in a game reduced to 20-overs per side due to the overnight rains that pounded Nairobi on Saturday night.
Nairobi Buffaloes won the toss and opted to bat. Their innings began well with Narendra Kerai (13) and Rahul Vishram (31) propelled them to 30 runs for the opening partnership before Vishram skied one to be caught by Emmanuel Ringera off Abdul Rehman. It was to spark a mini-collapse in the innings as the remainder of the batsmen never crossed the 20-run mark and they eventually finished on 112 off their 20 overs.
Kongonis ensured a strong start in reply to their chase of 112, with opener Rakep Patel starring with a well worked 61 off just 41 balls, he put his team in the driving seat almost immediately the innings began and dispatched Raj Savala to the boundary twice in the second over as the youngster conceded 23 runs off his first and only over in the inning.
However, the Buffaloes regained their composure and began picking wickets as the Kongonis batsmen played around Patel and when they finally got their man (Patel) with the scores at 91.
The Buffaloes fought hard and threatened to take the game away as four wickets fell with the same score of 91, before Rajesh Bhudiya produced a match winning performance with some explosive batting, hitting 20 off 8 balls and ensuring that victory was Kongonis yet again.
In another match, Ugandan ace Arthur Kyobe turning out for Nile Knights failed to get off the blocks scoring a paltry 7 runs leaving the Knights reeling at 49 for 4. However, old timer Benjamin Musoke and skipper Davis Karashani stepped out to keep the Knights' ship afloat with a partnership of 100 runs for the fifth wicket.
Eventually Benjamin was out edging an Harrison Ambani delivery that was calmly taken by David Obuya behind the wickets for well executed 62 off 68 balls and Davis followed immediately with an assisting 38 runs before they closed at 202/9.
With a hovering cloud over Kyambogo, the Knights opened with spin bowling and delivered 24 overs in 70 minutes with the board at 45 runs for 4 wickets when the rains came down.
After D/L calculations, the Rhinos had a target of 179 runs and to get from 40 overs and only managed 128, losing by 50 runs. The Rhinos looked chanced to a win from the Knights' sloppy fielding with a couple of dummies from Kyobe punching one for six and letting one-two many singles for doubles as he struggled in the outfield. Peter Ongondo, batting at number 10 scored 25 not out, backed up by number 11 Ibrahim Akello with 15 not out.
In Mombasa, Uganda's Rwenzori Warriors beat hosts Coat Pekee by 6 wickets. Coast Pekee won the toss and elected to bat first and were in trouble earlier on against the tight bowling of Charles Waiswa(3/34) and Brian Masaba(2/13). Coast Pekee ended up on 90 all out in 38.1 overs.
Rwenzori Warriors got to their target of 93 for the loss of 4 wickets in 12.5 overs thanks mainly to Roger Mukasa 51 and Lawrence Sematimba 23 not out. Coast Pekee left arm spinner, Pradeep Patel bowled well to capture 2 wickets for 3 runs while Lucas Olouch had 2 wickets 42 runs.
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