T20 World Cup: Uganda withstand scare to defeat Papua New Guinea by three wickets

It was a historic day for Uganda’s cricket team as they won their first match in an ICC tournament. Brian Masaba and his side defeated fellow debutants Papua New Guinea by 3 wickets in a low-scoring encounter to get their first points of the tournament. 

Uganda won the toss and yet again opted to bowl just like their last game. Veteran bowler Frank Nsubuga bowled four overs and picked 2/4 with two maidens. This was the best ever bowling figures in the history of the T20 World Cups. 

Papua New Guinea bowlers tried their best to make a comeback and had reduced Uganda to 26/5 at one stage. Riazat Ali Shah though played a crucial knock of 33 to deliver the hammer blow for PNG as the men in yellow pocketed their first ever win of the campaign. 

Riazat Ali Shah’s knock helps Uganda win low-scoring contest 

Uganda were asked to chase down a paltry 78-run target to win their first ever game in T20 World Cup. Papua New Guinea didn’t throw in the towel as their new ball bowlers gave them a brilliant star. 

Alei Nao struck first when he had Uganda batter Roger Mukasa trapped in front of the stumps for a duck. Norman Vanua then struck when he had Robinson Obuya caught by Assad Vala for just one run. Simon Ssesazi was also out LBW to Alei Nao for 3-ball single as Uganda slumped to 6/3 in the 3rd over. 

With their side in trouble, Alpesh Ramjani and Riazat Ali Shah batted cautiously to put on a stand of 19-runs off 22 balls. The blossoming 4th wicket stand was broken when Chad Soper castled Ramjani for 8 runs from 10 balls. Dinesh Nakrani then fell for a 3 ball duck as Asad Vala dismissed him as Uganda were tottering at 26/5. 

It took a 35-run stand for the 4th wicket between Riazat Ali Shah and Juma Miyagi to bring Uganda back into the contest. It could have been much worse had PNG fielders held onto a few crucial chances. Riazat Ali Shah was out after scoring 33 runs from 56 balls with just a single four. The winning runs came when Kenneth Waiswa got two runs to take Uganda past the PNG total and there was a huge cheer from his teams’ dugout.