Ghana’s senior national Men’s Cricket team started their ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Sub Regional Africa B Qualifier campaign with a 25 runs victory over Eswatini at the IPRC Oval in Kigali this morning.
Eswatini won toss and chose to field first, so Ghana scored the first innings, recording 176 runs for 5 wickets. James Kwaku Vifah 63(55) and vice-captain, Samson Kwasi Awe Awiah 48(22) opened the batting and gave a good account of themselves. Their partnership produced 57 runs, before Samson, who score 8 fours and 2 sixes with a strike rate of 218.18, was caught on the 5th over by Adil Butt.
Eswatini in the second innings, managed 151/5, with just 10 extras.
Kofi Bagabena (2.0-0-12-1), Godfred Bakiweyem (3.0-0-28-1), Rexford Bakum (4.0-0-33-1) and Daniel Anefie (2.0-0-16-1), played their parts in ensuring Ghana had a good restriction on their opponents.
James Vifah, with 5 fours and a strike rate of 114.55, was adjudged Player of the Match with his over half a century performance.
Captain of Ghana, Obed Harvey admits the collective effort of the team and how they look forward to the other matches in a brief interview with TalksenseSports
“We got 176 for 5 wickets in 20 overs. We started with a flyer from our openers James and Samson, giving us a solid platform to continue with the momentum. The run rate slowed down a touch after the power play, but we kept our intensity going.”
“We got a bit pf response from Eswatini pushing us to the wall but we kept denying them the asking rate. In summary, it was a collective effort from the team. One huddle crossed and we look forward to the other ones.” He concluded.
Ghana will next face Mozambique, tomorrow (Friday, December 2) at the IPRC at 9:30am (7:30am Ghana Time). A win for them tomorrow will boost their chances of qualifying to the regional stage.
Kenya and Rwanda qualified from the Sub Regional A, awaiting two teams that will qualifier from this tournament for a showdown next year, which will also see a team qualify to the next stage.
By: Davis Nii Attuquaye Clottey
