An explosive innings of 91 by Alex Obanda ensured Kongonis booked a final berth with Warriors of Uganda in the semi-final of the ongoing East Africa Premier League at the Nairobi Gymkhana ground.
Obanda who opened the batting with Collins Obuya (51) put together a tournament-high 142 run partnership for the opening stand. Obanda used 59 balls and found the boundary 8 times with 5 others going over for sixes in a fiery innings for Kongonis. Obuya was also not to be outdone bring his half-century from 39 balls including 2 fours and sixes apiece.
The partnership was broken when Collins Obuya lost his middle stump to paceman Lucas Oluoch, Kanbis most successful bowler on the day finishing with figures of 2 for 39. Obuya’s departure brought in Shem Ngoche who clubbed his way to a quick 47 runs from 16 deliveries scoring an identical number of boundary and sixes being four each during some late onslaught.
Obanda lost his wicket soon after Obuya had done so, but to a fine ‘Angelo Mathews-like’ catch at the long-on boundary by Dhiren Gondaria. The Rudd brothers William and Henry helped get the total to 203 from 20 overs.
In reply Kanbis Tigers fell short by 46 runs but not before giving Kongonis a huge scare most notably, scoring within the required run-rate for the first 10 overs which saw them register 100 runs despite losing two early wickets thanks largely to Narendra Patel’s 45 runs from 31 deliveries and Rakep Patel’s 33 runs from 21 balls. Their departures a few overs later stopped the strong flow of runs.
Henry was the pick of the bowlers picking 4 wickets for 15 runs.
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