Continent Cup T20: Botswana eye revenge in battle against Kenya

A day against a familiar foe will ensue Thursday afternoon as Kenya plays host to Botswana in their second matchup at the 2023 Continent Cup T20 Africa Tournament staged at the Nairobi Gymkhana Grounds in Nairobi, Kenya.

Coming in as a side that hadn’t won against the three nations taking part in the four-nation tourney, Botswana (1-4) have had it tough going with just a single win against lowly ranked Rwanda to show.

Against Kenya, a second stab by former cricketer Joseph Angara-now coach for Botswana to get the country a valuable win over the table leaders.

Continent Cup T20: Kenya back to winning ways with fourth victory

In their previous two meetings, Kenya has on both accounts won by 8 wickets; the latest being on Sunday 11 June as Shem Ngoche produced a man of the match performance with three wickets from four overs to restrict the South African region representatives to just 92 runs in 20 overs.

Kenya - who also beat Botswana in an ICC Men's T20 World Cup Sub-Regional Africa Qualifier Group B in November 2022 - would go on to post 98 runs with 59 balls remaining, thanks to the remarkable hand of Rushab Patel who posted 45 runs not-out.

"We need to be strict in the power plays when bowling and batting," Angara said of tweaks to make for his side which ranks lowest in Net Run Rate. "Beating Kenya will be a big deal for us and I believe we can."

Whether they do it remains to be seen as the two clash at 1330 EAT, coming off an early kickoff game between second placed Uganda against Rwanda at 0930 EAT.

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