Match summaries

Sunday (Morning)

RGCC 197/4 in 20 overs lost to KCC 198/5 in 19.2 overs by 5 wickets

Afternoon

KWCC 174/3 in 20 overs beat ITCC 144/8 in 20 by 30 runs

Kigali Cricket Club defeated Right Guards by five wickets in an exciting VR Naidu Twenty20 Cup game on Sunday at the Kicukiro cricket oval.

Right Guards captain Eric Dusingizimana won the toss and elected to bat first posting 197 runs, their highest score in club history, for a loss of four wickets with Derrick Bayingana and Joshua Mwanja registering 57 and 55 runs respectively.

KCC’s hard-hitting partnership of Gohel Dhaval (48 runs) and Kazim Patel (44 runs) put on an 83-run partnership to set the pace for an exciting run chase as their side made 198 with four balls to spare.

"We did not expect to get there but it was an outstanding performance from my team,” said the contented captain of Kigali CC Hassan Zaki.

Dusingizimana blamed his side’s loss on poor bowling that allowed their opponents to post a ridiculous run rate of 10 runs per over. He said, "We played with two players less (team had only nine players) so it was very difficult to contain the aggressiveness of the KCC batsmen.”

Despite their loss, Bayingana was named player of the match after picking three wickets in addition to his 57 runs.

In the other game, Kigali Warriors CC registered their first win ever in Rwandan cricket since inception in June 2014 after beating Impala Titans by 30 runs.

Kigali Warriors batted first and scored 174 runs for a loss of three wickets in the allocated overs with Dinesh Rajendra (51 runs) and Sadesh Kumar (38 runs) posting a 94-run partnership that laid a good foundation for the newcomers.

Ram Gokul came on to complete the job at hand, scoring a quick fire 62 runs off just 23 balls with six sixes and three boundaries.

Impala Titans’ new recruit Edward Pearson scored an impressive 59 runs but his teammates fell for the aggressive bowling of Kigali Warriors.

Eugene Haragirimana and Gokul each picked two wickets as Kigali Warriors limited Impala Titans to 144 runs for a loss of eight wickets in 20 overs. Gokul was named player of the match.

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