The U19 squad suffered a 54-run defeat to the senior team in a friendly match at the University of Dar es Salaam grounds early this week. The match served as part of the U19 cricketers’ final preparations for the forthcoming continental assignment, scheduled for August 9-16 in Zambia.
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The U19 squad suffered a 54-run defeat to the senior team in a friendly match at the University of Dar es Salaam grounds early this week.
Dar es Salaam. Tanzania’s U19 cricket team faces a challenging task of improving its batting approach ahead of this year’s ICC Africa U19 World Cup Qualifiers Division 2, as the team’s weakness in this aspect was exposed in a friendly match in Dar es Salaam earlier this week.
The U19 squad suffered a 54-run defeat to the senior team in a friendly match at the University of Dar es Salaam grounds early this week.
The match served as part of the U19 cricketers’ final preparations for the forthcoming continental assignment, scheduled for August 9-16 in Zambia.
Batting weakness, which has, so far, been Tanzania’s U19 cricket team’s Achilles heel, came into view in the match, as the squad’s batsmen disappointingly failed to forge meaningful partnerships, which could have helped them mount successful chase of the senior team’s score.
The senior cricket team started to bat in the game and raced to 234 runs for the loss of six wickets in 50 overs, with double-digit figures posted by five of the squad’s batsmen contributing immensely to the ability to record the convincing total.
A 72-ball 59 by Riziki Kiseto and unbeaten 41 runs off 46 balls by Kassim Nassor helped the senior cricketers stay in control of the innings, with Kiseto nailing six boundaries on his way to finishing the innings with what turned out to be the best performance with the bat.
Tanzania U19’s medium pacer, Goodluck Andrew had the only meaningful contribution in his side’s turn with the ball after finishing the spell with 2-31 in 10 overs.
Chasing 235 runs to win turned out to be an uphill task for the U19 cricketers as they were bowled out for 180 runs in 29.2 overs. Senior team’s pacer, Khalil Rehemtulla (4-47 in eight overs) and spinner, Kassim Nassor (2-38 in 9.2 overs) had a significant role in frustrating U19 squad’s chase.
Tanzania U19 squad has been scheduled to play host, Zambia, in the opening match and the two sides will rekindle their rivalry in pool A of the last year’s ICC Africa U19 World Cup Qualifiers Division1 in Kampala, Uganda.
Zambia managed the third position in the pool behind leaders, Namibia and second-placed Uganda, whereas Tanzania finished at the bottom of the pool.
Tanzania and Zambia, therefore, faced relegation to Division 2.
Zambia, moreover, had the last laugh when it faced Tanzania in the event, as the former cruised to a five-wicket win in the match played at Kyambogo grounds.
The game stands to be one of the trickiest assignments for the Tanzanians, given that their opponents will be buoyed by, among other aspects, home grounds advantage.
Tanzania, though, will rely on the experience of skipper, Salum Jumbe, Arshaan Jessani, Lazaro Festo, Samir Nasser and Shafii Muharami, who were also in the last year’s squad that featured in the Uganda tournament.
