Kabras in perfect start to Kenya Cup
Habil Malika (left) of Kabras Sugar is tackled by Timothy Makiya of Impala Saracens in a past match. PHOTO | FILE |
What you need to know:
- Kabras Sugar take five point lead after five games.
- Impala Saracens lose 42-10 to Kabras, drop to third.
- Nondies suffer their second consecutive loss after a bright start.
- Strathmore Leos stranded at the bottom of the log winless.
- Kenya Cup resumes on January 12 with cross over matches.
Former champions Kabras Sugar sit pretty at the top of Kenya Cup standings with 25 points, having won all their five matches with bonus points as of as the league takes a break for the holidays.
Kabras Sugar, the 2016 Kenya Cup champions, stretched their unbeaten for run in five matches this season when they crashed visiting Impala Saracens 42-10 at the Kakamega Showground on Saturday.
The Sugar Millers went five points clear of second placed Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) with their fifth win on the trot. KCB overtook Impala Saracens after they thrashed visiting Menengai Homeboyz 34-15 at Ruaraka.
Impala, who were unbeaten before their waterloo in Kakamega, dropped to third place with 17 points. Kenya Harlequin recovered from their 22-13 defeat by KCB to wallop Nondescripts 32-13, a win that takes them to fourth with 16 points.
Nondies, who started the season on a high note stunning Homeboyz ad KCB, suffered their second consecutive loss and drop to fifth place with 15 points, same with Top Fry Nakuru who beat visiting Mean Machine 29-19 at Nakuru Athletic Club.
Stanbic Mwamba recovered from their shaky start to record their second win after after a hard fought 27-15 victory over stubborn Menengai Oilers. The win ensures Kulabu finish the year in seventh place with 12 points a point ahead of eittgh paced Deejays.
At the other end of the table, Strathmore Leos are winless after five games but have three points, all from losing bonus point column. Fellow
students Mean Machine are 11th two points ahead of Leos. Machine’s only win of the season was against bottom placed Leos.
New comers Oilers are tenth with six points, two from losing bonus point basket and four from their shock victory over Quins in Nakuru. Another University side Blak Blad will finish the year at ninth position with 10 points, all collected from their wins against Leos and Machine.
Kabras Sugar assistant coach Nick Achayo says efficient execution of their plays is what has carried them to the top of the league so far. “The matches were not easy since the same teams we beat went on to record good results elsewhere,” he said.
At Ruaraka, KCB coach Curtis Olago reckons the first round of matches have been brutal for his boy adding that the next round will be even tougher.“We haven’t taken territorial play seriously. There are no longer dark horses in the league. You can easily get hammered if you are caught napping,” said Olago.
The league is being played in two pools of six teams each playing home and away within their respective groups. Then they will be cross over matches with teams playing a one off encounter against teams from the other pool for a total of 15 matches.
Top two teams in the combined log will get semi final ticket with the next four fighting it out in the play offs. Pool “A” has KCB, Homeboyz, Quins, Mwamba, Nondies and Oilers while Pool “B” has Kabras Sugar, Impala Saracens, Strathmore Leos, Nakuru, Kenyatta University’s Blak Blad, Mean Machine from the University of Nairobi.
