Swamibapa A beat Kanbis A to consolidate lead

Early reports in see Swamibapa A beating Kanbis to strengthen their claim on this year's title. we do not yet have details of the game, but a Swamibapa win will take them that little bit closer while Kanbis will really have to pull out some big results to avoid what could well be a finish outside the top 2 - something hard to imagine even as recently as last year.

batting first, Kanbis gtwere bowled out for 197 with Nehemia Odhiambo taking 2wkts for 21 runs, Tony Suji, 3wkts for 22 runs, Shem Obado 2wkts for 43 runs, James Ngoche 2 wkts for 29 runs and Lamek Onyango 1 for 26.

.Swami started on a good note with Maurice Ouma 37 and Francis Otieno 32 but Kanbis kept up the pressure taking some cheap wickets. Nehemia Odhiambo rallied with 37 runs and Lameck Onyango scored 34 to bring Swamibapa closer to the target which Elijah Otieno (16*) reached with a boundry with 2 overs to go.

In other games, Jimmy Kamande (pictured right v Ireland in the IC), captain of Stray Lions A (20) lead his team to a fabulous win over Simba Union (3) at Peponi School Ground when beating them by a massive 224 runs. The match was officiated by Subhash Modi and David Odhiambo.

Stray Lions won the toss and elected to bat first and scored 388 runs for the loss of 7 wickets in 49 overs thanks mainly to Jimmy Kamande who lit up the proceedings with a remarkable century (127). He received very good support from David Obuya 78, Peter Kituku 45, Hiren Varaiya 39 , Nadeem Ahmed 25 and Steve Tikolo 20. Bowling honours for Simba Union were shared by their captain Gagandeep Singh 2 wickets for 66 runs and Chetan Sangrakar 2 wickets for 32 runs.

Simba Union were bowled out for 164 in 34.3 overs with fine resistance coming from a Sri Lankan born left handed Shezad Nizar with a commanding and strokeful 74 and Lucas Olouch 36. For Stray Lions Steve Tikolo (3/25), Darshit Shah (3/43) and Hiren Varaiya 2/29 were the most impressive and successful bowlers.

SCLYL A also won chasing down 264 to beat Sir Ali A.

Telca won their game v Kanbis B to complete a horror weekend for Kenya's most successful club. This win puts Telca in clear second place behind Swamibapa, though with games in hand against weak sides, Stray Lions A could still mount a challenge for the title in what is developing into the most close fought NPCA League in years. With 4 teams still in with a very possible chance of winning the tournament, could this be the year that domestic cricket finally gets its lustre back?