By sportsnewsarena correspondent
Dec 12, 2017
As much as the Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association (NPCA) competitions might be regarded as ‘meaningless’ due to their inability to pull sponsors or even reward the winners for years now Kanbis appeared to be bothered with that.
If Kanbis are playing for their legacy or just for something more than just turning up on Sunday and play is question that many were left asking themselves on Sunday.
With Stray Lions having secured the league with a round of matches to go, it was expected that Kanbis who had lost the league title on ‘rain’ will not put on a big fight in finishing second.
But on Sunday, when they turned out to play Cutchi Leva at Samaj School, the club’s scorers had to look for a way to ensure that the club won the battle of the seconds.
With their closest challenger Swamibapa having been awarded 20 points without stepping on the pitch after Kongonis failed to show up, Kanbis needed to bag the 20 points to end the season level with Swamibapa.
To achieve this, they needed to score 275 plus and bowl out Cutchi Leva.
But when the last ball of the first inning was bowled, Kanbis were four runs short of the target of 275 and even if they would have won the match, they would have been a point behind Swamibapa.
But to the shock of many, Kanbis official scorer opted to add the four runs on his scorebook without consulting his colleague from Cutchi Leva during the inning break.
This led to a small confrontation that delayed the start of the second inning. It forced the intervention of a Kenya Cricket Umpire and Scorers Association (KCUSA) member Raj.
Bhudia took the two scorebooks and tallied where the scores were 271.
On resumption, Kanbis bowled out their hosts for 131 runs to win by 140 runs Ankit hirani had led Kanbis to the total of 271 with 79 runs.
Other contributors with the bat for the visitors were Sachin Bhudia 40 and Shyam Rabadia 40. Skipper Rajesh Bhudi bagged 4 for 52 as the homes inning folded in 31 overs.
Stray Lions unbeaten
At Sir Ali, Stray Lions registered a seven wickets win over Obuya Academy to end the season unbeaten.
With both teams missing most of their players after a number of them moved to Uganda to play in the newly launched Afro Twenty20 cricket tournament, it’s Stray Lions who were less affected with the absence of its players.
After being put into field, Stray Lions took only 20.1 overs to end Obuya’s stay in the middle with only 80 runs scored.
In reply, Stray Lions who had to use even their physiotherapist-Joseph Mutisya in the matches needed only 20.1 overs guarantee their unbeaten finish in the league this season.
Abhishek Chidambaran once again had a good show with the bowl claiming five wickets as Obuya Academy which was missing the Obuya brothers David and Kennedy struggled to create partnerships. A second wicket stand of 32 runs between opener Kevin Kimutai and Aveet Desai was the
best in the Obuya’s inning. From 35 for 1 after 4.5 overs, the home team opened up gates in their inning and Chidambaran and co. capitalized on any opportunity that came their way.
They either got them off a poor shot selection or either being unsure with the turn that the Sir Ali pitch was offering-thus being caught easily. Apart from Kimutai (17) and Desai (10), Charles Obuya (19) was the other batsmen with double digits.
None of the other batsmen could get past five runs mark with four of them scoring ducks. In reply, club’s secretary Thota Srinivas who had not batted in all the matches he had turned up for his club this season was handed the opening slot.
Together with Chidambaran, they put on 12 in seven overs before the U19 all-rounder was trapped lbw on six. Srinivas was back to the pavilion three balls later when he after scoring three.
Prashant Srinivas didn’t last long too in the middle as he was caught-leaving them on 22 for 3. Jimmy Kamande also playing his first match for the senior team this season and Nithin Arvind however took the match away from the league debutants with an unbeaten fourth wicket stand of 59.
