Magnificent Obanda smashes a scintillating 150 as Stray Lions beat Ngara

NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 5 – When it comes to cricketing prowess in NPCA competitions, the first name that comes to mind  is Stray Lions’ very own dangerman Alex Obanda. 

The batting maestro was in imperious form Saturday at Ngara Sports Club when, as an opening batsman, he smashed a cool unbeaten 150 to spearhead his side to a 144 run victory over the hosts.

Obanda’s 150 came off 63 balls, as he smashed 8 boundaries and 16 towering sixes which left his opponents floundering in South C.

Ngara were all bowled out for 71 in the second innings after they were unable to chase the massive margin that Obanda had set.

When Obanda went out to bat, little was known about his fairy tale intentions, but it exploded into a solid stream of joy by the time he retired from the crease to give his teammates a chance at the crease. 

Stray Lions won the toss and opted to bat first. The decision to bat, nevertheless, came in handy, what with Obanda’s spirited run working towards the downfall of their hosts.

Thota Sreenivas of Stray Lions said: ‘Alex (Obanda) really batted well and he is such a destructive batsman. There is no gainsaying that at the moment he is on top of his form. On the ground, there  was no specific match strategy. We always play to our potential and enjoy the game.”

Stray Lions scored 215/3 in the allotted 20 overs and then, their bowlers restricted the hosts to 71 all out to win the game by a massive 144 runs margin. 

Other contributions came from Joseph Onyango with a patient 24 and Krishna Katukala’s 19. 

In Nairobi West, hosts Cutchi Leva (SCLPS A) dealt former Champions Kanbis Sports Club A a 3 wicket blow in a dramatic upset. Kanbis won the toss and elected to bat first scoring a decent 189 for 7 in 20overs. 

Cutchi Leva successfully chased that target with 3 wickets to spare on the very last delivery to savour the weekend’s biggest upset. Narendra Patel 45 and Vinod Rabadiya 52 not out helped Kanbis achieve their total of 189 for 7 in the 20 overs. 

Cutchi Leva’s highest run contributor was Darash Panchani with an unbeaten 65 that he notched off 48 balls to guide his team home. 

Elsewhere, hosts Nairobi Gymkhana A beat Sir Ali by 23 runs in a low scoring encounter. 

Gymkhana won the toss and elected to bat first, put up a score of 110 for the loss of 9 wickets in their 20 overs.

In reply, Sir Ali took off to a scintillating start with Aditya Yadav and George Owino scoring 12 and 37 respectively.

But Sir Ali ran out of steam with no other batsmen from the side managing double digits and were bundled out for 87.

Gymkhana Captain Kavi Dosaja said: “I thought Lucas Oluoch really stepped up as a senior player to get a defendable total on the board. On the bowling front – after the power play we were down and out, and Sir Ali looked like they would take the game away after being 46-1 at the end of the power play.”

“Some special bowling from the two extremely talented young spinners (Yash Talati and Aarnav Patel) in our team brought us back and ultimately won us the game. I strongly feel that we’ve got the two best spinners in the country in our team and I’m hoping to see them both make their national team debuts this year.”

Lucas Oluoch scored a unbeaten half a century for the hosts.

Swamiibapa A beat Ruaraka by 33 runs in another entertaining fixture at Ruaraka Sport Club ground. 

Swamis batted first scoring 166/7 in 20 overs. In reply, all Ruaraka batsmen were sent back to the pavilion with the score board reading 139. 

Rushab Patel and Harendra Kerai scored 61 and 59 respectively for the winners. 

Notable contributions from  the Ruaraka batting line-up was their professional player Sachin Gill who smashed 57 while Vishal Patel was unbeaten on 34.

In the final encounter of the day, Obuya Cricket Academy upset Forest Road hosts Sikh Union winning by 32 runs, thanks to Obuya siblings Collins and David for their contribution of 59 and 31 respectively.

Obuya had it 193/7 in 20 overs while Sikh Union A were restricted to 161/6 in 20 overs.

Sukhdeep Singh scored 57 for Sikh Union before he was run out by Kennedy Obuya. Raj Manji of Sikh Union was unbeaten on 22 and so was Aum Patel on24.