By Akanimo Kufre
Agustino Mwamele’s brilliant effort gave Tanzania a comfortable victory against top-ranked Ugandan side on Saturday, Day two of the ICC U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifiers in Lagos.
Uganda dropped several catches, hence the chance to dismiss Tanzanian batters in the 1st inning of the game. Tanzania took the opportunity seriously and scored 198 runs with a loss of 8 wickets. Captain Laksh Bakrania, Karim Kiseto, and Agustino Mwamele all made massive runs of 60, 51, and 23, respectively. Mwamele took 4 wickets in addition to his batting score to win the Player of the Match Award.
Ugandan captain Gerald Olipa regrets his team’s slow start and dropped catches. He was optimistic about taking a fighting chance for the lone ticket despite the first loss.
“We dropped off a lot of catches and gave out easy singles. If we took all the catches, we would have put them under pressure and kept them under 120 runs. We will take the positives, go back to the drawing board, and work on that, he said”.
At Akoka Campus, University of Lagos Cricket Oval. Namibia recorded a second win over Sierra Leone by 46 runs. Namibia sits on top of the log with 4 points while Tanzania followed with 2 points.
Tanzanian captain Bakrania boasted about his partnership with Kiseto and complementary bowling attacks of Agustino Mwamele and Francis Raymond as the reason behind their success.
He said, “we will take it game by game. We have four games to go, and we will put our heads high but not too overconfident.”
Nigeria will play against Tanzania on Sunday at TBS Cricket Oval by 9:30 am. Similarly, Uganda tackles Kenya at Unilag by 9:30am. on Sunday, 30th March 2025
