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Cricket Cranes swept away in dream clash
Cosmas Kyewuta goes through his bowling stride against West Indies at the back end of the first innings. PHOTOS/COURTESY OF ICC MEDIA
What you need to know:
Gulf In Class. Uganda turned up with the hopes of claiming a prize scalp against the West Indies, but the two-time World Champions were brutal with the bat and clinical with the ball, subjecting the East African debutantes to a 134-run defeat at Providence Stadium in Guyana.
After grabbing headlines in the first two matches of their debut World Cup campaign, Uganda found themselves on the wrong end of history as hosts West Indies pummeled them by 134 runs in their third match of the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in the West Indies and USA.
A lot of niceties were shared between the two teams in the build-up to the crunch Group C match at Providence Stadium in Guyana on Sunday morning. Despite Uganda putting on a commendable bowling performance to restrict the two-time World Champions to 173, the gulf in class was evident.
The West Indies batters didn't really explode on the tough batting track but played purposefully, sensibly dispatching every half-tracker, half-volley, and full toss to the boundary. Ugandan fans had their moments to cheer as their team took five wickets after Rovman Powell won the toss and elected to bat first. It could have been better for Uganda if wicketkeeper Simon Ssesazi, Dinesh Nakrani, and Riazat Ali Shah had performed better in the field.
Devastating spell
The first innings was arguably the only bright spot for Uganda in the one-sided match as their batting woes from previous matches (58 all out against Afghanistan and 78 for 7 against Papua New Guinea) continued. Like in the previous matches, Uganda lost five wickets inside the power play. Trinidadian left-arm orthodox spinner Akeal Hosein bowled a spell of deception, taking five wickets in his four overs.
Riazat Ali Shah was castled by five-wicket hero Akeal Hosein
Three of Hosein’s wickets were LBW (Leg Before Wicket) and two were clean bowled; he was ruthless and unplayable. He trapped Mukasa plumb in front with an arm ball on the second delivery of the chase, marking Mukasa’s third straight duck in the tournament – a scenario the Ugandan similarly faced at the 2006 U-19 World Cup in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Alpesh Ramjani was Hosein’s second LBW victim, followed by Riazat Ali Shah, who failed to read an arm ball that rattled his stumps. Dinesh Nakrani was clean bowled through the gate, and Kenneth Waiswa became Hosein's fifth victim after playing a wrong line to another arm ball, leaving Uganda reeling at 23 for 7.
Unwanted record
The end was near, with Juma Miyaji adding an unbeaten 13 off 20, but Uganda was still bowled out for 39 – now the joint-lowest score at the men's T20 World Cup, matching the Netherlands' total against Sri Lanka in the 2014 edition.
“Tough day for us. It is a very steep learning curve,” admitted captain Brian Masaba, who led with the nation’s best bowling figures of 2 for 31 in 4 overs. “It just shows the difference in class. We were outplayed, but we must take the learnings from it. As a batting unit, we are much better than what we have shown here. There were some positives in that bowling performance. Keeping them under 200 stood out.”
Uganda flew out of Guyana to Trinidad & Tobago mid-morning yesterday to prepare for their final Group C fixture against New Zealand in the early hours of June 15 at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba, San Fernando.
GROUP C – TABLE STANDINGS
TEAM M W L PTS NRR
AFG 2 2 0 4 5.225
WI 2 2 0 4 3.574
UGA 3 1 2 2 -4.217
PNG 2 0 2 0 -0.434
NZ 1 0 1 0 -4.200
