Pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi produced a fiery spell after Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran struck half-centuries in a solid opening partnership as Afghanistan began their T20 World Cup campaign with a comprehensive 125-run victory over debutants Uganda at the Providence Stadium early morning on Tuesday (Indian time).
Kolkata Knight Riders’ Gurbaz (76 off 45 balls) and his opening partner Zadran (70 off 46 balls) registered the second highest opening partnership (154) in the men’s T20 Cup as Afghanistan posted a challenging 183/5 after being put into bat.
Left-arm pacer Farooqi (5/9) then knocked the wind out of the Ugandan batting line-up with his maiden five-wicket haul. The debutants were shot out for just 58 in 16 overs.
“It’s just the kind of start we wanted as a team... Does not matter who we play, it is about the mindset,” Afghanistan captain Rashid Khan said later. “The hard work we have put in over the last few weeks, the way the openers started and the way our bowlers bowled were all part of a great team effort.”
Seamer Farooqi was twice on the brink of claiming a hat-trick. After being hit for a four off his first delivery, he bowled a brilliant in-swinger which clipped Ronak Patel’s bat before crashing onto the stumps. He then trapped Roger Mukasa lbw with a similar kind of delivery.
Fellow pacer Naveen-ul-Haq also picked up two wickets in his first over, leaving Uganda in dire straits at 18/5. Farooqi then returned in the 13th over to snare three more wickets to register his career-best figures in T20Is.
He first deceived Riazat Ali Shah with a slower delivery to bowl him out before forcing skipper Brian Masaba to nick the ball with an eager Gurbaz collecting it easily. He missed out on a hat-trick again, but claimed his fifth scalp in the last ball of the over.
Brief scores: Afghanistan 183/5 in 20 ovs (R. Gurbaz 76, I. Zadran 70). Uganda 58 in 16 ovs (F. Farooqi 5/9). Afghanistan won by 125 runs.
‘Unfair’ roster
The Sri Lankans have lambasted the scheduling of their team’s matches in the ongoing World Cup, calling the roster “unfair” as that has already forced them to cancel one practice session due to the long travel time.
Sri Lanka lost their opener to South Africa after which, spinner Maheesh Theekshana spoke out on the scheduling which he believes has affected the team. “So unfair for us... We have to leave every day (after the game) because we are playing at four different venues,” Theekshana said.
“As for the flight we took from Florida, from Miami, we had to wait like eight hours at the airport to get the flight. We were supposed to leave at 8pm, but we got the flight at 5am (local time). It’s really unfair for us, but it doesn’t matter when you play.”
