Ghana Finally Found Their Batting — and Still Lost: Abu Kamara and the DLS Sheet Keep Sierra Leone Rolling

Rain-affected cricket is often unfair to someone, and on Friday in Lagos it was Ghana. After two innings of 91 and 85 earlier in the week, they finally batted with some control. Joseph Theodore carried his bat for 60 from 58 balls, and Ghana lost only two wickets. It was not enough. When play ended after 15 overs of the chase, Ghana were 84 for 2, and the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern par was 97. Sierra Leone won by 13 runs on the DLS method.

The margin was built earlier, by Abu Kamara. In an innings cut to 18 overs, he hit 57 from 42 balls with three sixes. Sierra Leone reached 120 for 5, which was always going to be hard to chase on this ground. It was Kamara's second Player of the Match award against Ghana in four days.

Sierra Leone started quickly. Alusine Turay hit three sixes in his 30 from 21 balls, and they were 50 for 2 in the seventh over despite Nitesh Hooda removing both openers. Kamara and Yegbeh Jalloh then added 59 for the third wicket. Jalloh's 18 from 25 balls was slow, but it let Kamara attack from the other end. Sierra Leone were 109 for 2 after 15.6 overs.

The finish was scrappy. Hooda bowled Lansana Lamin for a first-ball duck, and Kamara was run out off the last ball of the innings. Three wickets fell for 11 runs. Even so, 120 in 18 overs on a ground where earlier totals in the series had ranged from 80 to 139 was a strong score, and the DLS calculation would make it stronger still.

The bowling was tidy rather than dramatic. Six bowlers were used, and only Alusine Turay went for more than eight an over. George Sesay struck in the first over, and Aliya Kamara (3-0-11-1) broke the 71-run stand with Baaleri. Then Sierra Leone simply kept Ghana under par until the chase was ended.

There was plenty for Ghana to take from this. Theodore also kept wicket, making a stumping and helping with a run-out, and his 60 not out was a genuinely good innings. After Jayant Gautam fell for 1 in the first over, he and Richmond Baaleri added 71. That is exactly the kind of platform Ghana's batting had lacked all week.

But the stand was slow. Baaleri's 14 took 24 balls, and Ghana were 74 for 2 at the end of the 13th over, needing a faster rate than they were managing. In a match threatened by weather, par matters from the first ball, and Ghana's careful approach left them 13 behind when the chase was cut short. Their bowlers also deserve credit. Hooda took 3 for 26, and Obed Harvey's four overs cost only 19.

The weather decided the shape of the match. Sierra Leone's innings was cut to 18 overs, and Ghana's chase stopped after 15, with DLS deciding the result. On the Tafawa Balewa Square surface, where the series has been low-scoring, both teams struggled to score quickly against disciplined bowling. The difference was that Sierra Leone had more batters who could hit sixes. There were six between Kamara and Turay, and only one in Ghana's reply.

Kamara won the award on Tuesday with a patient 27 from 35 balls in a low chase. This time, with the team needing runs quickly, he played a very different innings. He hit two fours and three sixes and scored at a strike rate of 135 while Jalloh held up the other end. Against the same opponent in the same week, he found a second way to win.

Our preview made Sierra Leone the favourites and flagged an 87% chance of rain with a warning that DLS could play a part. Both calls came true. We named Kamara and George Sesay as the key figures. Kamara was Player of the Match, and Sesay took the first wicket. We also said Ghana needed to survive the first six overs without losing three wickets. They did, losing only one, but they then lacked the scoring rate to take advantage of it.

After eight matches, Nigeria A have three wins from four matches, and Nigeria and Sierra Leone have two wins, one defeat and one no-result each. Ghana have lost all four of their games. Sierra Leone play Nigeria A on September 26 and Nigeria on September 27, so they have two more chances to finish top of the table. Ghana play Nigeria on September 26 and Nigeria A on September 27, and on the evidence of Theodore's innings, they are getting closer. Unlock CricIntel Pro for more T20I analysis.