Leemisa Thuseho

RISING STAR cricket club will this afternoon host All Stars Cricket Club in a Lesotho Cricket Association (LCA) T20 tournament at Sethaleng in Maseru.

The second semifinal pitying Linare and Lankasia, is also on today at the Airport Grounds in Hlotse, Leribe.

The winners from both matches will proceed to the final on 15 August in Maseru.

Rising Star deputy captain Patel Sarfaraj told the Sunday Express yesterday that his side was ready for today’s battle.

“We have been hard at work preparing for the semi-final because our aim is to win the tournament,” Sarfaraj said.

The team so far has two trophies after winning the Indian Association of Lesotho tournament in the 2018/19 and 2019/20 seasons and is now looking forward to adding another.

Sarfaraj said reaching the semifinal was not any easy journey because they were in a tough group.

LCA media liaison officer, Clifford Molefe, said after a lengthy period of non-activity due to Covid-19, they organised the tournament to keep their players active while waiting for the situation to normalise.

He said the tournament, which is now in its sixth week, was also aimed at giving coaches an opportunity to start scouting for national team players.

“Our national coaches also get the opportunity to monitor and identify players for our national team,” Molefe said.

“We were only playing on Sundays and sometimes, we had to postpone the games because most of the teams are made up of employed people who also have other commitments. The tournament had 10 teams divided into two streams with five teams from Maseru and five from Leribe,” Molefe said.

He said they are also looking forward to hosting women and youth tournaments in the near future since they must also prepare teams that will represent Lesotho at the Youth Games in Rwanda later this year.