This Weekend's Domestic Cricket

NAKURU:

Sunday April 9th: Game 5 of the Nakuru Akshar League sees DIAMOND CLUB take on AKSHAR B with both teams looking for their first win of the tournament. Akshar B lost the first match of the competition to V.O.C while Diamond club went down to Eldoret.

Akshar B will be looking to a better performance from their batsmen who only managed 111 in the last match due to some lusty hitting at the end of the innings from Marvin. Sunil looked the most promising top order batsman for them last time managing a start, an example his fellow specialist batsmen will be hoping they can emulate on Sunday. Akshar's best bowler last match was Ravi who took 4 out of their 6 wickets. He will again be asked to do the damage, though will need support from the rest of the bowlers.

Diamond Club will be looking for the firepower of their bowlers to carry them through. Both Raju and Kakul looked dangerous last match taking 4 wickets each, and they were ably backed up by Vimal. Diamond's batting is not their strong point - other than an unbeaten 17 by Vimal, no one even got a start last match. For most of their batsmen even double figures will be an improvement, but if they can get a half decent total, their bowlers will almost certainly give them a chance to take the game.

Prediction: Diamond to win in a tight match.

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COAST:

There are two days of cricket for Coast fans to look forward to in the Mulji Devraj & Bros sponsored Twenty-20 tournament. On Saturday, Mombasa Sports Club host CCA select in the last of their preliminary matches. Expect MSC to win this one fairly easily, as they have done the last three pool games. Coast Gymkhana B also take on Shree Cutchi Leva in a must-win game for them if they want to progress to Sunday's semi finals and a meeting with their 'A' team.

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Sunday's scheduled Semi-Final matches are:

Winners Group A (Coast Gymkhana A) vs Runners up Group B(C.Gymkhana B or Burhani SC)

and

Winners Group B (MSC) vs Runners up Group A (Jaffery/Coast Development).

Favourites to meet in the final would be MSC and Gymkhana A, both having convincingly topped their groups by winning all matches so far.

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NAIROBI:

Who knows? It is not reported on in the online versions of the Kenyan papers, and there is no communication from the NPCA. I'm sure there must be cricket going on somewhere in Nairobi, but I'm afraid unless someone there is able to fill me in, I can't say much about it. If anyone in Nairobi would like to enlighten us, my email address can be found in profiles.