Lions prey on rivals Kanbis in Twenty20 tie

What you need to know:

  • The Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association Twenty20 tournament has reached its penultimate stage with two big games on the cards on Sunday.
  • Stray Lions, who lead the pack in league standing with 43 points, will fight it out with their arch-rivals, Kanbis, at the Nairobi Gymkhana from 2pm.
  • Kanbis trail Lions by five, with 38 points to their credit.

The Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association Twenty20 tournament has reached its penultimate stage with two big games on the cards on Sunday.

Stray Lions, who lead the pack in league standing with 43 points, will fight it out with their arch-rivals, Kanbis, at the Nairobi Gymkhana from 2pm.

Kanbis trail Lions by five, with 38 points to their credit.

The winner of the encounter will have an automatic qualification to the final at the same venue on March 3.

On the other hand, the loser will have a second chance to play in the final as they will face the winner of the game between third placed Swamibapa (28 points) and Cutchi Leva (21) who are fourth in the league standings.

The match between Swamibapa and Cutchi Leva will be at the Gymkhana from 9.30am.

Kanbis team captain Rajesh Bundhia said they will play a cautious game.

“We must win this game to go direct to the final. We are taking no chances. We are lucky because our three senior players who were in Namibia with the national team, namely Rakep Patel, Dhiren Gondaria and Nelson “Mandela” Odhiambo, are back.”

The Lions’ skipper, Hiren Varaiya was not available for comments.

However, Varaiya’s team mate Collins Obuya, one of the senior players in the national team, said that his captain was out of the country. But commenting on their game against Kanbis, Obuya simply said: “We will clobber them!”

When asked about their professional players from India, Obuya said: “I have been away for four weeks. I do not know how many of them are still in the country, but with or without them, we will beat Kanbis.”

This is expected to be the game of the day and when the two umpires take up their positions, the iconic Gymkhana ground will be set ablaze.