4 June 2024 10:03 am Views - 556
Afghanistan recorded the fourth largest win in T20 World Cup history after beating Uganda by 125 runs at Providence on Monday. In the Group C fixture, T20 World Cup debutants Uganda were bundled out for 58 runs in reply to Afghanistan’s 183/5.
The three biggest wins in T20 World Cup history have come courtesy Sri Lanka (beat Kenya by 172 runs), South Africa and Afghanistan (beat Scotland by 130 runs).
In a one-sided contest in the Caribbean, only two of Uganda’s batters reached double digits - Robinson Obuya (14) and Riazat Ali Shah (11) - with extras the third highest scorer.
Fazalhaq Farooqi registered figures of 5/9 from his four overs and found support from Naveen-ul-Haq (2/4) and Rashid Khan (2/12).
Uganda never really got going in the chase, losing five wickets in the powerplay overs. Rashid got into the act to help in wiping out the tail but the evening belonged to Farooqi for his maiden fifer in T20Is.
Earlier, Afghanistan had an innings of two halves. The first half belonged to openers Ibrahim Zadran (70 off 46 balls) and Rahmanullah Gurbaz (76 off 45 balls) who stitched a 154 run partnership - the second biggest opening wicket stand in T20 World Cup history.
At that point, after 14 overs, Afghanistan were 152/0 and cruising along towards a big total. But Uganda did well to apply the brakes with regular wickets with Zadran and Gurbaz falling in quick succession.
Afghanistan mustered only 27 runs from the last five overs and no boundaries came in the last six overs.
Uganda, the second lowest ranked team in the tournament, modified their plans, bowled tighter to the stumps and didn’t give any width to the Afghan batters. Brian Masaba (2/21) led the turnaround and was the pick of the bowlers. Cosmas Kyewuta (2/25) also popped up with two scalps, with Alpesh Ramjani getting the prized wicket of Gurbaz.