Swamibapa to battle Gymkhana for Nairobi T20 final slot

Swamibapa will Saturday face off with Nairobi Gymkhana for a place in the final of the Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association (NPCA) Super Division Twenty20 tournament at Sikh Union ground.

The winner of the crunch tie, slated for 2.30pm, will take on Kanbis in the final on Sunday.

Kanbis sailed to the final last weekend when they beat Swamibapa in the game featuring the two top finishers in the preliminary rounds of the NPCA Twenty20 Super Division League. Nairobi Gymkhana, on the other hand, triumphed against Ngara in the game pitting the third and fourth-placed finishers.

Swamibapa, who have a good number of both current and former national team players, start as favourites to win Saturday’s encounter.

But much will depend on how their top order batsmen led by opening pair of Irfan Karim and Alex Obanda will perform with the bat.

The other batsmen who have been getting runs for Swamibapa include the former national team captain Morris Ouma, Mitesh Sanghani, Naman Patel, James Ngoche and Emmanuel Bundi.

In bowling, Swamibapa’s right-arm medium pacer, Lameck Onyango, left-arm spin bowler Jadavji Bhimji, Ngoche, Bundi and Sanghani are capable of destroying Gymkhana’s batting line-up.

However, the one-time invincible Swamibapa - who dominated the local cricket scene in the 1980s and 90s - have become a very inconsistent side.

It is one of the most unpredictable teams in the league. Therefore, the winner will only be known when the last ball has been bowled.

Gymkhana has a young side with some promising players like Rushab Patel, Karan Kaul, Dominic Wesonga and Lucas Oluoch. On a good day, Gymkhana is capable of causing an upset.