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AFG vs UGA (Source-ICC)
Uganda made their ICC tournament debut with their opening match of T20 World Cup against Afghanistan. It was a tough initiation as Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran put the Uganda bowlers to the sword with a 156-run stand for the opening wicket. The pair fell 14 runs short of the all time record which is 170 runs for the first wicket.
It was Brian Masaba who won the toss and chose to bowl first on a good looking wicket in Guyana. Afghanistan decided to bench Noor Ahmad and went in with Mujeeb Ur Rahman with Naveen-ul-Haq as the lead pacer.
After a forceful start from Afghanistan, the Uganda bowlers did well to pull back things in their control. At one stage it looked like the Afghans could very go past the 200 mark but some smart bowling from the men in yellow prevented that as the Rashid Khan led side could only score 183.
Afghanistan lose their way after strong start
After being put into bat, Afghanistan openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran went after the Uganda bowlers. In the very second ball in the first over of the match, Gurbaz hit Alpesh Ramjani for a huge six as 12 runs were scored in the first over. It wasn't a great start to the T20 World Cup for the team from Africa who were making their debut.
The two batters kept hitting the bad ball for fours and sixes as 48 runs were scored from the first five overs. Dinesh Nakrani bowling the final over of the powerplay was hit for 18 runs with four boundaries as the Afghanistan batters ended on a high. After the first six overs, Afghanistan had scored 66 runs with both their openers past the 30-run mark.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz was the first to reach his half-century as he got to the mark in 28 balls. By the 10th over the 100 was up for Afghanistan and the Uganda bowlers had no clue how to pick their first wicket as none of the plans were working. Ibrahim Zadran then got to his fifty which came off 33 balls when he sneaked 3 runs off Masaba.
Just as the opening stand looked like taking the game away from Uganda, Brian Masaba the skipper got the first wicket. Ibrahim Zadran was bowled off his pads for 70 while trying to go for a huge hit. Fellow opener Gurbaz was next as he spooned an easy catch to Riazat Ali Shah to give Alpesh Ramjani his first wicket.
Brian Masaba struck again when he had Najibullah Zadran caught by Alpesh Ramjani for 2 as Uganda put the brakes on Afghanistan’s scoring. Afte being 156/1 from 15 overs, the Afghans could score only 27 runs from the next five overs to end on 183/5 from their 20 overs.