Uganda  & Kenya News

 

Jinja SS win Women’s League Crown

 

Tornado Bee 107 in 42.2 overs (Sherifa Kutaaka 36, Mary Nalule 32; Stephanie Nampiina 3-10, Sarah Walaza 3-18).

Jinja SS 108/4 in 25.2 overs (Kevin Awino 41*, Sarah Walaza 20; Mary Nalule 2-31, Joscelyn Nakato 2-36).

 

‘Topspinner’ notes from Kyambogo:

 

Jinja SS won the women’s league title in a not particularly authoritative way. At one point Tornado Bee were 11/6, but a partnership between Sherry Kutaaka and Mary Nalule took them to 70. Nalule continued to dig in and was last out on 107.

Jinja’s attack of Sarah Walaza and Stephanie Nampiina was at first unplayable but later discombobulated. Walaza should not have been rested when she had taken 3-7 off six overs.

Rearguard action

There was a good rearguard action by Tornado Bee, especially by Nalule (32) and Kutaaka (36), but others stuck in too.

Bee bowled badly in the half-hour before lunch, with Jinja going in on 30/1 from six overs; yet at 36/3 Bee looked to be in with a chance. 

But it was surrendered, with defensive fields and dropped catches, though Nalule took a stunner off her own bowling and bowled 10 overs straight through.

 

She was my ‘man of the match’, although Kevin Awino (41 not out) and Walaza outpointed her.

Women's League Comes to a Head

By ‘Topspinner’

The Uganda national women’s league reaches its 2017 climax on Saturday (Nov 25) with Olila High School CC hoping they can pip Jinja Senior School CC at the post – as they did in this year’s T20 contest.

The Jinja schoolgirls, already on 19 points, take on last year’s champions Tornado Bee – relegated this time – at Kyambogo University, while Olila HS (18) will battle matters out with Wanderers, who have fallen off the pace, on the banks of the Nile at Jinja.

On 11 points with Wanderers are Pioneer, winners in 2015, who take on Kampala Institute of Cricket Clubs (KICC) at Lugogo Oval, Kampala. KICC are mid-table on 12 points; the best they can hope for is the runners-up spot, if Olila lose.

Olila, meanwhile, will be hoping Wanderers cave in on the artificial wicket at Jinja, and that Tornado Bee, who have ‘nil points’, pull a rabbit out of the hat to defeat Jinja SS.

The title – in the last season before the Ugandans head off to Holland next June for the Women’s World Cup qualifiers – is up for grabs.

UPDATE:  Olila HS were just pipped by Jinja SS (25 points to 24), third came Pioneer, then KICC, Wanderers and Tornado Bee in a rather truncated competition - each side playing the other only once as the T20 gang start their preparations for Netherlands next year.

Washing and Watching

By ‘Topspinner’

At the boundary’s edge at Jinja cricket ground in Uganda there were a dozen local secondary schoolgirls washing their clothes – and at the same time watching a Sunday cricket match.

Nothing particularly strange about that, you may think.

Yet, amid the myriad orange, yellow and blue bowls and buckets, there was something familiar about these girls busying themselves washing and watching.

They were, in fact, the previous day’s victors in a women’s national Uganda Jazz Safari league match between the school-based team, Jinja SS, and Kampala Institute of Cricket Clubs (KICC); while on this occasion they were urging on their male counterparts in a T20 match against Kutchi Tigers.

Alas, between the girls dipping their clothes, wringing them out and hanging them, the Jinja SS boys made a frightful hash of batting, being bundled out for 50 in 12 overs. Kutchi Tigers whacked up a winning 52/1 in 4.1 overs in reply.

From captain to scorer

Also on the boundary edge, the match scorer was none other than Jinja’s wicketkeeper batsman Kevin Awino, the national women’s team captain.

“It’s good exercise for them to be washing and watching,” she remarked as she mused on how the very same girls had cleaned up KICC (41 all out, Sarah Walaza 4-12) by five wickets (Dinah Ardong 20) the day before…

[NB. Kevin Awino will likely be leading the Uganda national team v Bangladesh, Scotland, Ireland, Papua New Guinea and Netherlands in the Women’s World Cup Qualifiers in Holland in June next year. KICC’s captain Franklyn Najjumba, the Uganda Cricket Association’s women’s national organiser, will also likely be in the Uganda squad.]

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