TANZANIA's hopes of winning the inaugural Africa U-19 women cricket championship went up in smokes yesterday after losing to Uganda by two wickets at Annadil Burhani ground in Dar es Salaam.

Uganda's middle order batting players were the toast of their side's win after putting solid batting to keep Tanzanian bowlers at bay and help their side lay their hands on the trophy.

Uganda opted to start batting and scored 106 runs for the loss of five wickets in 30 overs, showing no signs of losing confidence despite witnessing their dependable top order batting players succumbing early on in the innings.

Esther Osikol and Hellen Naundo scored 37 runs apiece while Anna Kisakye solidified her team's quest for maximum number of runs by adding 34 runs.

Tanzania went for close fielding from early on and the trick almost paid dividends after the team's bowlers managed to fell three consecutive wickets amid wild cheers from a handful of spectators.

Ugandan batting players however calmed their nerves midway through their innings and nailed fours whenever opportunities came their way to add to their score.

Skipper Zakia Sanguti, Zena Said, Esther Wallace, Asha Shakimu and Mariam Muona took a wicket each during their respective bowling spells but failed to finish off their opponents by the time the first innings came to a close.

Tanzania's shaky batting came into play early on and their opponents carefully exploited a couple of mistakes by the former's opening batting players to weaken their chase.

The hosts eventually managed 77 runs for the loss of seven wickets in their allotted 30 overs and had to thank Zakia for her terrific performance which somewhat helped the team finish with respectable score.

Zakia had 20 runs to finish as top scorer of runs in the team while Prisca Patrick had 12 runs and Asha Shakimu finished with nine runs. The rest of the team's batting players failed to build any meaningful partnership and were easily dismissed by Ugandan bowlers.

Uganda's Carol took two wickets and team mate Flavia Laker had a wicket.

Tanzania's head coach Mwanaidi Ibrahim praised her players for battling throughout despite losing the match, and added that they still are in a better position to finish as runners-up

The tournament winds up today with Tanzania playing Rwanda while Kenya face Zambia in formality games.