Kenya kick off Pearl Africa T20 Series with win over Nigeria

The Kenya men's national cricket team kicked off their 2025 Pearl of Africa T20 Series on a winning note as they beat Nigeria by 18 runs (DLS) at the Entebbe Cricket Oval in Uganda.

Lameck Onyango's side, after winning the toss, elected to bat, and put up scores of 106 runs for the loss of eight wickets in a 16-over first-innings that only began 90 minutes after the scheduled time due to a downpour.

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Nigeria in response scored 88-9 in their 16-overs, giving Kenya the victory that puts them level on points with Namibia A, who also won on Day One after squeaking past hosts Uganda A by two runs.

Playing in their first T20 international match since October last year, Kenya got off to a steady start thanks to some solid batting from openers Pushkar Sharma and Dhiren Gondaria, but found themselves struggling to put up scores in a first innings that saw six men pose single figures.

Big-hitter Gondaria put up 23 runs off 19 balls before falling to the bowling of Sylvester Okpe in the sixth over, and only followed fellow opener Sharma, who had been dismissed 10 balls earlier for 15.

Tanzeel Sheikh, coming in at number four, did well to keep Kenya going in the midst of Kenyan wickets flying around. He established a steady partnership with former skipper Rakep Patel, before being dismissed for 24.

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Sachin Gill - 23 off 19 balls - was the other Kenyan man in double digits, helping Kenya to a decent total despite having two wickets fall in three balls on two separate occasions.

Left-armer Vraj Patel was, however, the man to put on an exhibition in the second innings, taking three wickets and only allowing five runs to stop their opponents.

The 23-year-old, who was deservedly named Man-of-the-Match, took down both openers Sulaimon Runsewe (five runs off six balls) and Selim Sasau (duck) with his first and third balls of the game in the second over.

Patel struck again in the 10th over to dismiss Isaac Danladi, but at that point, it felt like the damage was already done, as fellow bowler Vishil Patel had taken two batters out in an impressive ninth over.

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"It was a difficult wicket today, especially with the slower balls, but the bowlers did well," Kenya's skipper Gondaria said after the win. "We will now look to work on our batting because the intent was right, but we just lost quick wickets in the middle."

Their chance to do that comes on Friday, 18 July, when Kenya comes up against favourites UAE at the same venue from 1330 EAT.