By Victor Kanayo
East African country, Uganda, have against all odds captured a significant ticket to the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 to be held in the West Indies and USA.
With the victory, the Ugandan team emerged the 20th African team to compete at the global stage.
Historic Daring Performance
The Ugandans rushed to a nine-wicket victory over Rwanda in the African Final, to seal their spot alongside host Namibia.
It is a historic achievement for the associate nation that has improved significantly over the past few years and now unassuming captain Brian Masaba will have the opportunity to take Uganda to their first ICC World Cup.
They just become the fifth African nation to qualify for an ICC tournament.
To seal their dream ticket, Uganda rolled out Rwanda for just 65, with two wickets apiece for Masaba, the excellent Alpesh Ramjani and Dinesh Nakrani as well as Henry Ssenyondo.
In the chase, Simon Ssesazi (26 not out) and Ronak Patel (18 off 20 balls) added 31 for the first wicket, before Roger Mukasa joined Ssesazi to take his side home and spark appropriate celebrations.
In other action on Thursday, host Namibia made light work of Nigeria.
They bowled them out for just 93, with Bernard Scholtz (three for 15) starring with the ball. Veteran David Wiese and the consistent JJ Smit picked up two wickets apiece, as Nigeria were dismissed inside their 20 overs.
The other match saw Zimbabwe wallop Kenya by 110 runs, thanks to brutal half-centuries from Sikandar Raza (82 from 48 balls) and Sean Williams (60 from 26 balls).
Raza hammered eight sixes in his knock, while Williams helped himself to five maximums, as Zimbabwe posted 217 for four.
Kenya Faded Hopes
Kenya had feint hopes of pipping Uganda to qualification at some point, but they were a shadow of that side as they were restricted to just 107 for eight.
Raza and Williams both added two wickets to their extraordinary exploits with bat, as Zimbabwe finally found the form that they had been hoping for.
