By 
The Uganda Cricket Cranes captain was one of the players that injected energy into this young Cricket cranes team as they won their game against neighbours Kenya in the first semi-final at the T20 Africa Cup on Wednesday.
Uganda who had an advantage from the word go after winning the toss didn’t start in the best way but leveled the ground with Juma Miyagi’s good balling.
In a game that was disturbed by weather, the Ugandam team tried so much to restrict the runs of the Kenyans like Nehemiah, something that at some point gave them a Wicket through Cosmas Kyewuta.
At the re-start of the game, in the second half when it was Uganda’s turn to bat. The team which got lots of good batters, lost a number of their skippers due to wickets
Uganda lost players like Captain Brian Masaba, Simon Ssesazi, Kenneth Waiswa among others at crucial stages courtsey of good balling by Vraj Patel .
Despite Kenya thinking they had come back into the equation Riazat Ali Shah gave Uganda bragging winning rights in the last stage batting three crucial Balls to give Uganda the win only for Lucas Oluoch registering 4/30 in the three overs that he bowled
This helped theUganda Cricket Cranes to go past resilient Kenya by 3 wickets to reach the finals of the inaugural Africa T20 Cup.
Final result
Kenya 105/8 in 18 overs
Uganda 107/7 in 17.3 overs
Uganda won by 3 wickets
After the win and arrival in the final, Uganda Cricket Cranes Captain Brian Masaba came out with a smile to talk to the media saying;
Getting in the final is one of the goals we set for ourselves at the beginning of the tournament but anyway a Close one today but happy to get over the line.
It was a very tricky one and cricket can be a funny game the pitch wasn’t the easiest to bat on, we were glad we won the toss and put them in and managed to restrict them to a scored we failed to condense so I thought the guys had to drag themselves and put the team over the line. He added
When asked about Riazat bailing the team out in the last game stages;
We have not really had the chance to test the depth of our middle order, I thought today they were put under abit of pressure and they did really well to get the team over the line, it’s good for our development while going forward just to make sure every player gets a taste of how high intensity games can be like. He concluded
In the other semifinal on the same day, Tanzania beat Botswana to book a place in the final.
Therefore, Uganda will play another East Africa side, Tanzania in the final of the maiden Africa T20 Cup tournament on Thursday at Wilmore Park, 15:50 EAT.
