Kongonis Alex Obanda scored a quickfire 63 from just 25 deliveries to propel Kongonis in to fourth place and booked a place in the play-off against third place Coast Pekee next weekend.
Obanda’s blistering knock included nine boundaries and four sixes. He demolished paceman Mitesh Sanghani, hitting every delivery to the boundary 2 sixes and 4 fours scoring 26 runs in the fifth over to swing the advantage massively in the home team’s direction. He shared an opening stand of 75 with Maninder Singh (12), but the former was the dominant of the pair in their chase of Rift Valley Rhinos’ 104 for 8 off 20 overs.
His departure after 6.1 overs slowed down the tempo momentarily before Kongonis lost further wickets but the target was reached in 11 overs to give the Nairobi Club side every chance of making the play-offs courtesy of a good net run-rate.
Earlier on, debutant Eugene Ochieng was in inspired form returning figures of 2 for 15 off his four overs to hold back Rhinos charge to a challenging total. The youngster was introduced more as makeshift bowler to cover the injured Henry Rudd showed good temperament to challenge the experienced players. His victims included a settled Nelson Odhiambo (26) whom he cleaned up and trapping Runish Gudka (26) leg before to break a threatening pair that had rescued the innings from 9 for the loss of 3 wickets to 55 for 4.
In Mombasa, Coast Pekee won by 9 wickets in a rain affected match that was reduced to 18 overs a side but the inform Pekee needed only half the overs to chase down 53 runs scored by Knights for the loss of Manoj Patel, while in Kampala, honours were even when both teams ended on 137 for 8 off 20 overs.
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