Seychelles beat Gambia to keep hope alive

Accra, Feb. 25, GNA- Seychelles beat Gambia on match day two of the ICC African Division 3 T20 tournament underway in Ghana to keep alive their hope of picking the trophy and the sole slot for the African Premier League in April.

Seychelles won 15 runs after winning the toss and opted to bat. They scored 85 runs all out in 17 overs.

It is Seychelles second win in two days after beating Mali on day one by 60 runs scoring 161 for seven wickets.

The newcomers to the regional events batted aggressively and ended up setting a very impressive 161 for seven. Naaidoo (47), Nagaraja (30) and Kamalan(45) all looked in very good form.

Simon Watson of the Mali was the only one to cause any problems for th= e Seychelles batters and he ended with an impressive figure of 4 for 24. In the field of play, the islanders looked a very good outfit. The bowling was tight, supported by aggressive fielding and in the end they achieved a comfortable 61-run victory. An invigorated looking Lesotho side almost managed to pull off a wonderful win over the tournament number one ranked team, Rwanda, on the opening day but in the end cool heads saved the match for Rwanda. Rwanda were able to post a competitive 102 in the allotted 20 overs, with Subashas Samez scoring freely with an exciting 20 off 23 balls, while Derrick Bayingana was able to chip in with 12 off 17 balls. The pick of the Lesotho bowlers was undoubtedly Seth Suleman who took four wickets for 30 runs. In the run chase the Lesotho batsmen got off to a very positive start, hitting 34 off the first five overs. Raline Lemphanne was the star of the run chase with 28 run off 41 deliveries. Unfortunately this was a little too late and Lesotho was beaten by one run, needing only six runs off the final over to win the game. In the other match of the morning, new boys Morocco completely outplaye= d a desperate Gambia side. The North Africans debutants bowled an under gunne= d Gambia out for 58 runs in the 13th over. Rachid Harmaouri and Soufine Es-si= h both took 3 wickets. The Moroccan batting never looked in trouble and passed the target in the 16th over with only two wickets down. Rachid Harmaouri was again the star performer with 27 off 58 balls.