Magic Wand

Nov 18, 2002

WANDERERS and Tornado share a running feud that goes back the times in local cricket’s history, and the two fought an epic battle yesterday — Wanderers won

By Mark Namanya

Wanderers 154/8Tornado153/10
ACC 394/10 Premier 94/10

WANDERERS and Tornado share a running feud that goes back the times in local cricket’s history, and the two fought an epic battle yesterday — Wanderers won.
Wanderers Cricket Club won the 2002 Castle league championship-winning tie by the edge of their teeth at Lugogo oval. A two wicket victory was only secured in the 48th over.
“This was purely God’s grace and a little bit of luck. I can’t believe I won them the match,” said the day’s hero, born-again batsman Joshua Mwanja.
Wanderers captain Richard Ssempa won the toss and opted to field.
That decision paid instantly with a golden duck dismissal of Tornado’s opening batsman and skipper Solomon Sserugga, and his first wicket partner Arkbar Baig (01).
After a moment of rain interruption that threatened to spoil the game, third batsman Benjamin Musoke not only helped Tornado recover from a perilous position but also drove them solely to the threshold of an upset victory.
A combination of blistering sweeps, square and late cuts saw him strike 75 runs, the tie’s biggest innings. Musoke was in the dying overs finally caught by Tendo Mbazzi.
Wanderers seemed to be on course for a smooth victory in their rain soaked afternoon innings after the opening pair of Michael Ndiko (38) and Hamza Saleh (16) reached the 50 run mark.
But the progress turned sour after Tendo Mbazzi (00) and John Lubia (18) were dismissed in succession.
The everlasting memory of the 2002 league decider will be two miraculous dropped catches by veterans Paul Nsibuka and Andrew Othieno off batsman Mwanja.
With Ndiko, Mbazzi, Richard Lwamafa (00) and Lubia gone, the loss of Mwanja would have been suicidal.
At this stage, grinding out even single runs had become hard, with Tornado on top of their fielding and bowling.
But Mwanja stuck in there with an unbeaten 30 as a final wide brought an end to the innings with 12 balls to spare.
Wanderers ended a ten-year wait for the national cricket league and the relief and joy of it all was evident.
Table standings
P W L Pts
Wanderers 16 16 0 433
Tornado 16 14 2 403
ACC 16 11 5 320
Destroyers 16 10 6 295
Nile 16 7 9 226
Jinja 16 5 11 164
Castle XI 16 4 12 157
Premier 16 13 13 112
Pakland 16 2 14 103

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