Kenya battle Rwanda in 2024 T20 World Cup qualifier
Kenya's Neil Mugabe during their training session at the Ruaraka Sports Club on November 17, 2023.
What you need to know:
- The Kenyan contingent of 15 players and five officials arrived in Windhoek on Sunday evening.
- The team will bank on experienced players Collins Obuya, captain Rakep Patel, Shem Ngoche and Lucas Ndandason.
Kenya will on Wednesday be seeking to extend its dominance over Rwanda in their opening match of the 2024 International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s T20 World Cup Africa Regional qualifiers at United Cricket Club Ground in Windhoek, Namibia.
The encounter will bowl off at 10:30 am Kenyan time. In the other matches programmed for Wednesday, hosts Namibia will clash with Zimbabwe at the same venue from 2:50pm, while Uganda face Tanzania at Wanderers Cricket Ground at 10:30am.
Nigeria is the other team competing in the round-robin tournament where the top two sides will qualify for the 2024 World Cup to be co-hosted by the United States of America and West Indies tentatively from June 4 to 30.
The Kenyan contingent of 15 players and five officials arrived in Windhoek on Sunday evening.
The team will bank on experienced players Collins Obuya, captain Rakep Patel, Shem Ngoche and Lucas Ndandason.
At the inaugural Continent Cup T20 Africa held in June at Nairobi Gymkhana, Kenya defeated Rwanda in all their three meetings.
The hosts registered a three-wicket win over Rwanda in their opening match of the tournament, before identical seven-wicket victories in their other two meetings.
In the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 Cricket World Cup Sub-Regional Africa “A” qualifiers held in Kigali, Rwanda in November last year, Kenya thrashed the hosts by nine wickets enroute to winning the tournament unbeaten to qualify for the final round of qualifiers.
According to the latest ICC rankings, Zimbabwe is at position 11, while Namibia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria and Rwanda follow in that order at position 12, 23, 30, 32, 38 and 62 respectively.
Kenya’s coach Lameck Onyango is confident that his side can qualify for the World Cup if “we do the right things, be positive, bowl at the right areas and bat all our 20 overs.”
Reckoning that the qualifiers will be tough, evergreen Obuya said that they will take one game at a time.
He said that with Namibia and Zimbabwe being the favourites, a win over either team will increase Kenya’s chances of qualifying to the global championship.
“It will not be easy but we will give our best. We will take one match at a time and if we manage to beat either Namibia or Zimbabwe, it will be a big advantage to us. Uganda are our equal, we do not fear them,” he said.
Playing Wednesday
Uganda v Tanzania Wanderers Cricket Ground (10:30am)
Kenya v Rwanda United Cricket Club Ground (10:30am)
Zimbabwe v Namibia United Cricket Club Ground (2:50pm)
