Seventy-Two Without Loss, Seven for Forty-Eight, and a Last-Ball Finish: Kenya Survive Yves Cyusa

Cricket keeps its accounts in an odd hand, but it does keep them. On May 25, at a T20 World Cup sub-regional qualifier in Gaborone, Rwanda chased down Kenya's 101 for 9 and won by two wickets. On Wednesday in Kigali, in the second match of the day at the Gahanga B Ground, Kenya chased down Rwanda's 139 for 8 and won by two wickets — off the last ball of the match.

For eight and a half overs it did not look as though it would come anywhere near the last ball. Rushab Patel and Dhiren Gondaria were 72 without loss in the ninth over, and Kenya needed only 68 more. Then Yves Cyusa and Muhammad Nadir came into the game, and Kenya lost seven wickets for 48 runs.

That Kenya still won says something about their lower order. That Cyusa still took the Player of the Match award says something about how close Rwanda came.

Kenya's day began with the new ball. Sachin Gill and Peter Langat removed Hamza Khan and Isae Niyomugabo for ducks, and Rwanda were 2 for 2 by the second ball of the second over. Hamza had made 53 against Botswana the day before; here he lasted two balls.

Rwanda never quite got the innings moving after that. Didier Ndikubwimana made 23 before being stumped off Shem Ngoche, David Uwimana top-scored with 35 from 26, and Rwanda were 112 for 8 in the eighteenth over. Gill finished with 4-0-20-2, Lucas Oluoch with 4-0-16-1, and Ngoche bowled only two overs, which cost five runs.

The chase, for its first half, was simple. Rushab Patel hit two sixes in 23 from 21, Dhiren Gondaria hit five fours and three sixes in 54 from 40, and the pair had 72 on the board in the ninth over. Gondaria's was the only half-century of the match, and it turned out to be the innings Kenya could not have done without.

Because what happened next would have broken a less settled side. Kenya went from 72 for 0 to 120 for 7 in 51 balls. At the end of the seventeenth over they needed 20 from 18 with three wickets left; when Gill's 23 ended at 132 in the nineteenth, bowled by Akayezu, it was 8 from 9 with two left. Shem Ngoche (9 not out from 8) and Vishil Patel (5 not out from 4) added 12 unbroken from the last nine balls, and the winning runs came off the final delivery. Vishil, who had earlier taken two wickets with the ball, was there at the end with the bat as well.

It would be easy to write this as a Kenyan escape and leave it there. It would also be unfair to Rwanda, who fought their way back into a match that had very nearly gone.

Start with the bat. Rwanda were 112 for 8 with fourteen balls of their innings left. Ignace Ntirenganya (16 not out from 13) and Muhammad Nadir (15 not out from 6) added 27 unbroken from them. Without those runs, there is no last-ball finish to write about.

Then the ball. Yves Cyusa and Nadir bowled seven overs between them for 32 runs and took six wickets — Gondaria, Sukhdeep Singh, Francis Mutua and Lucas Oluoch to Cyusa, Rakep Patel and Brian Likavu to Nadir. Martin Akayezu bowled Gill and held two catches off Cyusa. The other thirteen overs of the Rwandan innings, from Zappy Bimenyimana, Ntirenganya, Emile Rukiriza and Akayezu, cost 111 runs.

And there is the one question the scorecard raises and cannot answer. Cyusa's wickets fell in the thirteenth, fifteenth and seventeenth overs — every over he bowled brought at least one, and the seventeenth brought two. He finished with 3-0-13-4 and an over unbowled, in a match decided off the last ball. Whatever the reason, it will be the over Rwanda think about.

Earlier on Wednesday, Uganda had made 250 for 3 at this same ground. In this match the two sides made 283 runs between them and lost sixteen wickets. The figures do not tell us whether the same strip was used, and we will not pretend they do — but they do tell us where the runs dried up.

Kenya's three most economical bowlers, Gill, Oluoch and Ngoche, bowled ten overs for 41 and took four wickets; the other three bowled ten overs for 95, also for four. Rwanda's two spinners bowled seven overs for 32 and took six; the rest went at 8.54. Across the tournament's first two days, Cyusa and Nadir have now bowled fifteen overs for 56 runs and taken twelve wickets. On this evidence, the middle overs at Gahanga belong to whoever takes pace off the ball, and nobody in the competition does it better than Rwanda's pair.

It is not common for the Player of the Match to come from the side that lost. Yves Cyusa earned it twice over. With the bat he made 25 from 21 in an innings where only one teammate made more. With the ball — off-spin, in three overs — he took 4 for 13, and the first of his four was the one Kenya could least afford to lose: Gondaria, the only fifty-maker in the match. Sukhdeep Singh, Francis Mutua and Lucas Oluoch followed, the last of them caught off his own bowling.

Two matches into the tournament, his figures read seven overs, 24 runs, seven wickets. He could not quite win this one on his own. He came within a ball of doing it.

This match didn't have a CricIntel preview — we'll have full analysis for the next encounter.

Rwanda have since beaten Sierra Leone by 145 runs, and after six matches the table is tight at the top: Rwanda have two wins from three and a net run rate of +3.25, Kenya two from two at +2.475, and Uganda two from two at +6.109. Botswana and Sierra Leone are yet to win.

Kenya play Botswana on Friday and then Uganda on Saturday — the holders, who made 250 against Sierra Leone. That Saturday game is the next real test of a batting line-up that lost seven for 48 here. Rwanda face Uganda on Friday, and the question there is simple: can Cyusa and Nadir do to Uganda's hitters what they did to Kenya's middle order?

And the rematch is already on the calendar. Rwanda and Kenya meet again on Tuesday, September 15, having now traded two-wicket wins in the space of four months.