(ICC) An exceptional opening stand between Rahmanullah Gurbaz (76) and Ibrahim Zadran (70) and Fazalhaq Farooqi’s five-wicket haul gave Afghanistan a 125-run win against Uganda at the National Stadium at Providence last night in the ICC men’s T20 tournament.
Fazalhaq Farooqi gave Afghanistan the perfect start dismissing Ronak Patel (4) and Roger Mukasa (0) off back-to-back deliveries. While he missed out on a hat-trick, with Riazat Ali Shah surviving by the barest of margins, Afghanistan had their third when Mujeeb Ur Rahman dismissed Simon Ssezai for 4.
When Naveen-ul-Haq the third bowler to be introduced in the game, picked two wickets in his first over, Uganda were in dire straits at 18/5.
A brief stand between Riazat Ali and Robinson Obuya steadied the ship temporarily, but Farooqi returned to deliver further blows and strengthen Afghanistan’s grasp on the game. Farooqi finished with 5/9, while the finishing blows were delivered by skipper Rashid Khan.
Brian Masaba won the toss and elected to bowl first. Masaba wanted to restrict Afghanistan to a gettable total.
Afghanistan openers took off in no time, taking advantage of decent batting conditions, where the ball came onto the bat and the outfield was good. Lack of discipline from Uganda in the field also helped add to the Afghanistan total. Gurbaz took the lead initially, but Zadran joined him soon after hitting four fours in a row in the sixth over. Afghanistan were going at 11 runs an over at the end of first powerplay.
Afghanistan ended up at 183-5 while Uganda folded for 58 off of 16 overs. Its top scorer was Robinson Obuya with 14.
