Continent Cup T20: Kenya bounces back with thrilling hat-trick win over Rwanda

Running for their lives.

As plain as it sounds, that was Kenya's resolve as they took the strike in the second innings of their third match-up against Rwanda in Day 7 of the 2023 Continent Cup T20 Africa Tournament staged at the Nairobi Gymkhana Grounds in Nairobi, Kenya - eventually outlasting their opponents by seven wickets and with 16 balls left to play.

Perhaps this was a better way to check out a win for the hosts, who nearly disappeared after making history in a loss to Botswana on Thursday.

"I thought we took the loss positively and got things right today," Kenya's skipper Rakep Patel said post-game, reacting to a bowling masterclass from the home boys that restricted Rwanda to 99 runs all out.

On a day when the surface looked rugged and overused, it was clear that the team with the best bowling unit was going to come out tops, and so did the contest prove, as the duo of Vraj Patel and Lucas Oluoch- the game's man of the match- racked in three wickets each to dismiss all Rwandese batters with literally the last ball of the first innings.

Continent Cup T20: Botswana stun Kenya in historic victory

Only Didier Ndikubwimana - who deservedly gained credit from his captain Clinton Rubagumya for 'a great game since his return from injury' - and the pair of Oscar Manishimwe and Eric Dusingizimana put up double digits, placing them right where Kenya wanted them to be.

So after a pretty decent start from the Kenyan openers; Rushab Patel and Sukhdeep Singh, the former was dismissed by Rubagumya with the scores at 1-21 after 2.3. 

Kenya maintained a steady run-rate of 5.03 runs per over and after Singh right at the end of the eighth over, tension began making its way round the ground with Kenya needing 56 runs from 67 balls.

"This team can disrupt," sounded one fan as Kevin Irakoze, for his proper bowling caught Nelson Odhiambo in the 14th over.

"Of course we expected that given the surface, we had to dig deep with our batting since they have some good spinners," Rakep said of the few minutes of outside concern that had Kenya on the edge.

At the end, two boundaries from Bhudia and Patel sealed the win for the hosts after 17.2 overs, placing them just behind Uganda in the table standings.

Uganda, in the early matchup, recorded a routine win over Botswana and by 7 wickets, setting up a decisive third fixture between the two sides on Sunday afternoon (1330 EAT).

Rwanda face Botswana in the morning match from 0930 EAT.