Farooqi’s fifer sinks Uganda as Afghanistan win handsomely

Player of the Match Fazalhaq Farooqi strikes a pose with his captain Rashid Khan 

Afghanistan outclassed Uganda quite easily by 125 runs in a Group C match of the T20 World Cup at Providence on Monday and did themselves a great favour by upping their Net Run Rate should it come down to that for semi-final qualification.

Rahmanullah Gurbaz took the attack to them early in the powerplay and with his partner Ibrahim Zadran motored along nicely for a 154-run stand in 15 overs. Following the dismissals of Ibrahim for 70 of 46 balls (9 fours, 1 six) and Gurbaz for 76 off 45 balls (4 fours, 4 sixes) within four balls of each other, Uganda picked up wickets towards the end but Afghanistan finished on 183-5. With Afghanistan’s spin and pace quality it was always going to be difficult for Uganda even with dew setting in very early.

Fazalhaq Farooqi killed the contest with wickets off successive balls in his very first over. Mujeeb Ur Rahman got one the next over and Naveen-ul-Haq came on for a double-strike. The innings was pretty calm for a while until Farooqi came back to be, on a hat-trick once again in the game. He picked up three wickets in the same over to record his maiden fifer and Rashid Khan cleaned up the tail after that to bowl Uganda out for 58.

Scores: Afghanistan 183-5 (20) (Rahmanullah Gurbaz 76, Ibrahim Zadran 70, Cosmos Kyewuta 2/25)

Uganda 58 (16) (Robinson Ubuya 14, Fazalhaq Farooqi 5/9, Naveen-ul-Haq 2/4, Rashid Khan 2/12)