Uganda 170/7 in 20 overs.
UAE 162/9 in 20 overs.
On Sunday July 27, Uganda was a double-edged sword after batting 170 runs for a loss of 7 wickets before bowling harder to defend against the United Arab Emirates.
In the first inning, Alpesh Ramjan and Raghav Dawan both hit half-centuries as Ramjan converted 61 runs off 34 balls, while Dawan marked 56 from 41 balls.
The outstanding performance from the two covered for teammates who fell short with their batting.
Akif Raja and Haidar Alli were the hardest bowlers to face, the two picked up 4 wickets each in 4 overs.
Each of them got Uganda’s big hitters out, as Raja bowled out Ramjan in the 18.1 over and further stopped Denish Kumar Nakrani quickly.
Haidar was the man to stop Dawan with a catch by Shagir Khan; the same bowler had already taken off Robinson Obuya with LBW.
In the second inning, Nakran was the man to pull the chord after creating an economy of 6.00, conceding 24 runs in 4 overs, picked 2 wickets, and got 9 dot balls to become the best bowler on the day.
UAE started ahead of Uganda’s numbers, with Muhammad Waseem hitting 15 against experienced Powerplay bowler Frank Nsubuga in the second over.
Luckily for Uganda, Waseem was stopped by Ramjan with Cosmas Kyewuta’s catch on the second ball of the fourth over, as he was counting 25 runs off 12 balls.
From there, Uganda earned a turning point in the game to restrict the team, which came in as the tournament’s favorite, to 9 runs short of the target of 171.
Ethan D’Souza tried to pull up the game, but he got cut off short at 32 runs off 17 balls. Wicketkeeper Cyrus Kakuru caught him off Nakrani’s bowling with the first ball of the seventeenth over.
Opening batter Muhammad Zohaib converted 30 runs off 28 balls before facing dismissal at 10.4 overs by young star Mathew Musinguzi, with the catch from Captain Juma Miyaji.
Uganda played six games and won all of them, beating Nigeria, Kenya, and UAE in a double round robin format that started on July 17 and climaxed on the 27th.
The perfect run is pushing morale into the Uganda Cricket Cranes as they are preparing for the T20 World Cup qualifiers in Zimbabwe next month.
