Knights, Warriors impress Rudolph

By Charles Mutebi

NATIONAL cricket coach Johan Rudolph has hailed the spinners following the qualification of the Rwenzori Warriors and Nile Knights for Sunday’s final of the East Africa Cup.

Nile and Rwenzori consist of players in the national team set-up and triumphing at the expense of Kenyan clubs, consisting of Kenya’s national team players albeit spread across four teams, augers well for Uganda ahead of two impending ICC Global Qualifiers.

And as it stands, Uganda’s spinners look in good nick, which frankly has not been the case in recent years.
“The spinners performed very well,” said Rudolph.

“We have to admit that at the moment, the spin bowling is one of the strongest departments for Uganda.”

Spinners accounted for 13 of the 20 wickets claimed by Nile and Rwenzori, a fact that partly owes to the playing conditions of the Simba Union wicket on the two days as much as the nifty performance of the bowlers.

Nile’s Raymond Otim led all wicket-takers with 6-25 in five overs, with Rwenzori’s Roger Mukasa following closely with 5-22 in 8.5 overs. Henry Senyondo and Frank Nsubuga claimed the other two wickets.

Rudolph, consequently, admitted the need to improve the pace attack, which consistently struggled for breakthroughs.

“There is a bit of work needed by our seam bowling attack,” explained Rudolph. “If you look at the first six overs, our teams were conceding a boundary in each over and that has to change.”

The former Namibian boss also commented on Mukasa’s seeming indirect metamorphosis from top-order batsman to effective all-rounder.

He said: “I don’t regard Roger as an all-rounder. He is a top-order batsman and we need him to score the runs.

The coach added, “he has to avoid simply getting in and getting out. He has to get stuck in.”