Cricket: ICC Men's T20 World Cup Sub Regional Africa qualifiers   Seychelles beat Eswatini in the rain-affected match |25 October 2021

Seychelles beat Swaziland in the ICC men’s T20 World Cup qualifier 2021 for Africa sub region A on Wednesday October 20 at the Gahanga International Stadium Kigali.

Winning the toss, Swaziland chose to bat first. Unfortunately, the start was delayed due to rain and the match was cut down to 16 over per side. Swaziland batsmen began to play big shots until debutant Seychelles’ pace bowler Lalji Hirani removed 3 crucial wickets off Swaziland’s batsmen and limited the target to 129.

The other wicket takers were Kalvin Deso (2 wickets), Govind Kerai (1 wicket) and Kaushal Patel (1 wicket).

During the batting, the openers set up a quick partnership of 38 runs in which Rajiv scored 27 and Krishna (7) after the quick dismissals of Udhayan (4 runs).

Thimira Madhu Sanka (43 runs) and Md. Islam (32 runs) built a solid partnership of 85 runs that took Seychelles to victory in the last over of the match.

Seychelles’ batsmen Thimira Madhusanka was named player of the match for his batting performance.

Speaking at the post-match presentation captain Kaushal Patel said:

“The partnership that was lacking in the previous match was regained and the team is back on track and this win is a big moral boost for the upcoming match.

Seychelles, who lost to Malawi last Wednesday morning 121 to 143, were to play Uganda last Friday.

Contributed