By YVONNE SAKALA –
LUANSHYA Royals Cricket Club have been crowned champions of the 2016 Copperbelt under-19 boys Independence championship after topping the table at a tournament played in Ndola.
Luanshya Royals finished with 12 points, six clear off the joint second-placed sides Nkana, Ndola A, and Mufulira, who were on six points each.
In this match played at Kanini Sports Club, Luanshya Royals batted first and scored 76-5 with Chimya Chilekwa emerging as top scorer with an impressive 35 runs, not out, while Kanswe Omala contributed 15 runs to the team.
In reply, Mufulira were all out for 42 runs in nine overs to lose by 34 runs.
As if it was not enough in their second match, Luanshya Royals beat Ndola A by 62 runs in a match where they posted 100 runs and Ndola A, in their run chase, got restricted to 38 runs.
Other results saw Ndola A beating Mufulira by one wicket in a game that had Mufulira restricted to 55-7 and the Ndola A in reply reached their victory target in 10 overs for the loss of nine wickets.
At Nchanga Cricket Club in Chingola, hosts Nchanga won the toss and elected to field first and in their innings, Nkana were restricted to 75-6 and lost both their opening batsmen William Chota and Lucky Lubinga without scoring.
