By Spy Uganda
Jersey made a great start to their final ICC Challenge League B campaign as they beat fellow title-chasers Uganda by five wickets on home soil.
Uganda survived a middle order collapse to make 266-6 thanks to Deusdedit Muhumuza’s 86 not out and 56 from Arnold Otwani at Farmers Cricket Club.
In reply Harrison Carlyon’s 97 and Asa Tribe’s 68 put Jersey on course.
In a tense end Jersey reached 271-5 with 14 balls to spare as Julius Sumerauer made 39 not out in 18 balls.
Jersey – who play winless Bermuda in their next game on Monday – move up to second in the pool, with the group winners progressing to the next stage of qualifying for the 2023 Cricket World Cup.
The two sides last played less than a month ago when Uganda beat Jersey in the T20 World Cup Global Qualifiers.
But the islanders came into the game on a high having won all five of their matches in the last Challenge League B tournament in Kampala in June – including an impressive 62-run win over their Ugandan hosts.
Uganda started well and were 121-1 after 22 overs before losing three wickets for three runs midway through their innings. Otwani was caught by Sumerauer off the bowling of Tribe, Ronak Patel was run out for 19 and Dineshkumar Nakrani was run out without scoring.
But Uganda captain Muhumuza came in and shared an important 62-run partnership for the fifth wicket with Kenneth Waiswa before Sumerauer bowled the latter for 14.
Uganda scored 96 off the last 10 overs – including 36 off the final two-and-a-half overs – as Muhumuza went on to finish 86 not out from 80 balls to help the African side go past 250.
Jersey’s Elliot Miles took 2-60 off his 10 overs.
In reply the islanders had a tough start – Nick Greenwood went for 21 and Josh Lawrenson was out for six as Jersey were reduced to 37-2 in the seventh over.
But opener Carylon and teenager Tribe built an excellent third-wicket stand of 130 – Carlyon survived two dropped catches either side of the pair making their century partnership.
It was finally broken with 16 overs to go when Carlyon was bowled by Bilal Hassun for 97 off 116 balls that included two sixes and 12 fours.
Jonty Jenner departed for two soon after as Jersey slipped to 177-4 off 37.1 overs and started to drift away from the required run-rate.
Tribe picked up the pace with 10 overs left but when he was caught by for 68 off 99 balls with the score on 214-5 with seven overs Uganda found themselves back in the game.
But big hitting from Dominic Blampied and Sumerauer for the sixth wicket saw the islanders home – Blampied hit 29 not out from 25 deliveries while Sumerauer hit four sixes and a four as he won the match with a maximum.
