NPCA T20 League: Sir Ali extend lead, holders Kanbis beaten

Sir Ali Muslim Club ‘A’ at the weekend edged out Shree Cutchi Leva Patel Samaj (SCPLS) ‘A’ and Nairobi Gymkhana ‘A’ to go eight points clear at the top of the Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association (NPCA) T20 Super League.

The league leaders defeated SCPLS and Gymkhana by eight wickets and 30 runs on Saturday and Sunday respectively to take their points tally to 28.

Elsewhere, defending champions Kanbis Sports Club ‘A’ on Sunday suffered the first upset in their quest to retain the title by losing to the 2017 champions Swamibapa Sports Club ‘A’ by 23 runs at Jamhuri Cricket Grounds.

Kanbis, with a game in hand, are joint second with Swamibapa who have also played one match less. They are tied on 20 points.

The clash between Kanbis and Swamibapa was the highlight match of the weekend fixtures.

Swamibapa, who won the toss and elected to bat first, posted 137 runs for the loss of nine wickets in 20 overs of their innings.

In reply, Kanbis, who had won all their five matches ahead of this contest, hit 114 runs all-out in 19.5 overs of their innings.

Both sides restricted well with opener Rushab Patel delivering most runs for Swamibapa at 29 off 31 balls with three boundaries.

Only Yash Batt and Mitecsh Sanghani muscled a six in Swamibapa's innings.

Batt delivered 28 runs off 25 balls with two boundaries and a six, while Sanghani hit eight runs from seven deliveries with a six. Hiren Kabaria took the most wickets for Kanbis at four.

In their unsuccessful chase for a sixth straight win, Kanbis captain Dhiren Gondaria again led by example with a top score of 49 runs from 35 balls, including six fours and a six.

It was a tough afternoon for the rest of Kanbis batters with only Emmanuel Bundi managing to deliver another double digit score at 22 runs from 16 balls with three fours.

He took one wicket for the defending champions.

Priyanksinh Parmar picked the most wickets for Swamibapa in that innings at four.

Swamibapa's captain Rushab Patel hailed his teammates for the win.

"I attribute our win to the overall team performance. I think we did well as a batting unit to recover and coming into the field the effort was fantastic," said Patel.

His counterpart Gondaria attributed their loss to the early collapse of their top order batting:

"Whenever you lose your top order in early stages, it always hurts whether you are chasing or putting scores on the board. I think we went under pressure very early as I mentioned before about players thinking too much about the pitch misbehaving," he said.  

Swamibapa had on Saturday warmed up for the sweet victory over Kanbis with a 68-run romp over Sikh Union ‘A’ at Jaffery Sports Club Ground.

But Sikh Union bounced back to winning ways on Sunday with a 62-run victory over SCLPS at Sikh Union Club.

In other matches held at the weekend, Stray Lions Cricket Club ‘A’ put up an impressive performance by flooring all three weekend opponents.

They defeated hosts Gymkhana by 18 runs on Saturday at Nairobi Gymkhana before thumping Ruaraka Sports Club ‘A’ and Obuya Academy ‘A’ by seven wickets, and eight wickets respectively at Ruaraka Sports Club and Peponi School respectively.

Obuya also lost to Ruaraka by 58 runs at Ruaraka Sports Club Ground. With still no win to their name, Gymkhana and SCLPS are seventh and ninth respectively with no points.