The national senior men’s cricket team, the Cricket Cranes returned to the country on Tuesday from Zimbabwe where they have been taking part in the ICC T20 World Cup Global Qualifiers.
The Cricket Cranes, making only their second appearance at the global qualifiers failed to make it out of the group stages, but managed three wins including one in the group stages.
After their failure to advance to the semifinals, they were relegated to the plate games where they secured two victories to finish fifth.
Those victories came against Hong Kong and Jersey- their Challenge League B opponents.
Uganda is still involved in another world cup qualifier which is the Challenge League B, a qualifying pathway to the 2023 cricket world cup that will be hosted in India.
Hong Kong and Jersey are two of Uganda’s opponents in Group B in the Challenge League B, and ahead of the third round that Jersey will host.
Head coach, Laurance Mahatlane believes his team will draw confidence from their display against the two as they head to Jersey.
“I believe that with the final round coming up in about ten days, this tournament was beneficial for the boys in terms of building confidence,” he said.
Mahatlane was pleased with the side’s display, especially the bowlers.
“We saw a couple of outstanding performances, especially from our bowling attack. I thought Juma Miyaji was very special,” Mahatalne explained.
“Cosmos Kyewuta was very special in bowling in that last over against Jersey. As a group, I think our confidence has grown,” he added.
Along with Jersey and Hong Kong, Uganda is also grouped with Bermuda, Kenya and Italy.
The East Africans after recording eight wins in the first two rounds top the group with 16 points, ahead of Hong Kong in second with 15 and Jersey in third with 14.
The first round was hosted in Oman in 2019 while Uganda hosted the second round last month. The third round gets underway on August 4 in Jersey
