Triumphant Gymkhana looking to tackle remainder of NPCA season with renewed vigour

Nairobi Gymkhana is by and large the “Mecca” of cricket in the country-an equivalent of the Lord's Cricket Ground in England.

Their historic home turf, which co-hosted the 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup alongside Zimbabwe and South Africa venues, is regarded as the cradle of cricket in the country counting among the most popular teams in the NPCA ranks with some of the biggest names having donned their prestigious team jersey.

Ramanbhai Patel, Bob Bresson, Blaise D’Cunha, Virendra Desai, Narendra Patel, the legendary Batsman Jawahir Shah, All-rounder Harilal Shah (fondly known as Mutiso to his colleagues) , veteran skipper Charanjiv Sharma, Ramesh Patel, fast-bowler Dilip Patel, Mahesh Patel and Hitesh Mehta, are some the big names from the club that have captivated the local cricket scene with zest and vigor.

Of these players, Ramanbhai Patel, Jawahir Shah and Harilal Shah had the honor to captain the Kenya National Cricket Team.
But team's performance in the recent past has since been at a low ebb after losing their first six matches in the ongoing Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association (NPCA) 50 Overs League.

Last weekend, Gymkhana were back in the groove when they handed Ruaraka "A" a 5 wickets blow.
Ruaraka were all out for 124 while Nairobi Gymkhana carried the day when they chased the paltry score with the loss of 5 wickets for the maiden win this season.
Visitors Ruaraka A won the toss and elected to bat first.

Gymkhana skipper Kavi Dosaja is excited that the boys are determined to regain their lost glory of the team.

"The performance against Ruaraka A felt great, I mean to win the first game was quite a good feeling for us, I feel this will give us the momentum we need to get us back to winning ways and play consistently," .

"This time round I feel our team played fearless cricket backed up by another excellent bowling performance led by senior player Lucas Oluoch. It was also good to see Dominic Wesonga picking up some wickets. Another solid performance by our young and very talented spinner Arnav Patel. On the batting side of things I feel we still need our senior players to step up - our batsmen have been training very hard so a good performance is around the corner.

Going forward we need to improve more on our batting performances," Kavi explained of their renewed gusto and intensity.

Elsewhere, Sir Ali A' beat Sikh Union by 79 runs. Another clinical bowling performance by speedster Irfan Elahi who picked up a 5 wicket haul to put the brakes on the Sikh Union batting line up, who were comfortably strolling at 76 for the loss of 2 in the 16th Over. Abdul Rehman picked up the other 5 wickets to clean up the Sikh Union tail.

Stray Lions Cricket Club ‘A’ recovered from their previous loss to Sir Ali "A" to beat Swamis by 4 wickets.
The Lions had the extra bit of quality to successfully chase an under-par Swamibapa Cricket Club ‘A’ total at Peponi School.

Chasing 130, the top order faltered after a quick start, but Neil Mugabe and Charith Jayampathi steadied the Stray Lions from 103 for 6 all the way to victory with 21.4 overs to play.

The batsmen who seemed at ease in Swamibapa’s side were Maurice Ouma (53) and Rushab Patel (20) while Mugabe, Jayampathi and Alex Obanda (36) managed to offer some good resistance for the hosts.