T20 World Cup: Farooqi’s maiden five-wicket haul seals 125-run win for Afghanistan over Uganda

Guyana [West Indies], June 4 (ANI): Fazalhaq Farooqi’s exuberant spell blew away Uganda as Afghanistan marched to a 125-run win in their Group C match of the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024 at the Providence Stadium on Monday (local time).

While defending 183, Farooqi’s ferocious pace in the first over sealed Ronak Patel and Roger Mukasa’s trip back to the pavilion on two consecutive deliveries.

He castled Patel (4) with an inswinger on the second delivery. On the next ball, he left Mukasa bamboozled with an inswinger and trapped him in front of the stumps on his first delivery.

Wickets continued to fall like a house of cards with Mujeeb Ur Rahman joining the action in the next over.

Mujeeb pretended to bowl a leg break but deceived Simon Ssesazi (4) by pulling off a googly. Naveen-ul-Haq scalped two in the fifth over to reduce Uganda to 18/5.

In the rest of the chase, Uganda’s batters struggled to pull off boundaries while Farooqi continued to be economical and rattle wickets.

In the 13th over, Farooqi struck was on a hat-trick for the second time after picking up two consecutive wickets. With the second consecutive scalp, he completed his maiden five-wicket haul for Afghanistan in international cricket.

Uganda eventually bundled out on a score of 58 in the 16th over and succumbed to a 125-run defeat.

Earlier in the innings, Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran’s fierce opening partnership propelled Afghanistan to 183/5 against Uganda.

The duo also registered 154-run against Uganda to record the second-highest opening stand in the men’s T20 World Cup. Gurbaz scored the highest with 76 off 45 while opener Zadran smashed 70 runs in 46 balls powering Afghanistan to a fighting total.

Put to bat first, Afghanistan openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran took off in no time, taking advantage of decent batting conditions, where the ball came onto the bat and the outfield was good. Uganda gave away easy runs as the team failed in the fielding from early on.

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 the first powerplay.

The score of 75-0 is Afghanistan’s highest powerplay score in the T20 World Cup, bettering 64/2 vs South Africa at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai in 2016.

The explosion of boundaries continued for Gurbaz and Zadran as the Uganda bowlers found the going tough against the well-set batters. Gurbaz brought up his fifty in the ninth over, his first-ever in T20 World Cups, hitting four sixes and two fours on the way.

In the 10th over Afghanistan crossed the 100-run mark. Going closer to 10, Afghanistan looked well set to score the highest score of the tournament. An eventful 25-run over from Bilal Shah, which included five no-balls and five wides, helped Afghanistan pace past 150.

It was captain Brian Masaba who brought Uganda their first wicket in the competition, getting one to stay low and cleaning up Ibrahim Zadran. Alpesh Ramjani then removed well-set batter Gurbaz for 76 runs.

Najibullah Zadran and Gulbadin Naib gave away their wickets too easily without scoring much. Afghanistan could only muster 27 runs in the last five overs. Cosmas Kyewuta and Brian Masaba brought back their team in the match and the duo finished with two wickets haul, respectively, restricting Afghanistan to 183/5.

Brief score: Afghanistan 183/5 (Ibrahim Zadran 70, Rahmanullah Gurbaz 76; Brian Masaba 2-21) vs Uganda 58 (Robinson Obuya 14; Fazalhaq Farooqi 5-9, Naveen-ul-Haq 2-4).