Georgetown (Guyana), June 4: Afghanistan are no more the minnows in world cricket. If they competed hard in last year's ODI World Cup in India and pulled up surprise victories against bigger teams, then in the ensuing ICC T20 World Cup 2024, they appear to be maintaining the same momentum.
Afghanistan got off to a brilliant start in their T20 World Cup campaign and disseminated Uganda to pick up a 125-run victory. Afghan left-arm pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi was named the Man of the Match for his excellent spell, which saw him pick up five wickets whilst only leaking nine runs.
The 23 year old, who finished with the stunning figures of 5-9, went on to attribute his brilliant display on franchise cricket and explained how it helped his game.
"I tried to bowl into the wicket and see what happens. It swung from the beginning and later on I tried to bowl slower since it wasn’t coming onto the bat that nicely. Playing franchise cricket surely helps. When you play big games with big players, it helps you coming into a tournament like this,” said Farooqi in the post match interview.
After Afghanistan posted a total of 183/5, Farooqi gave the team the perfect start to their bowling picking up the wickets of Ronak Patel (4) and Roger Mukasa (0) off back-to-back deliveries.
The left-arm pacer went on to dismiss Riazat Ali Shah, Robinson Obuya and skipper Brian Masaba to complete his five-wicket haul.
He became the sixth Afghanistani player to ever take a Five-fors for Afghanistan in T20Is and produced the fourth best bowling spell in T20 World Cup history.
"Congratulations to all Afghan fans on the victory, I have missed a hat-trick 7-8 times in my career. It’s not something in my control but I will try better in the future,” he added.
Afghanistan will next play New Zealand in their second group C encounter on June 8 at the Providence Stadium while Uganda will face Papua New Guinea on June 6 at the same venue.
Though Afghans had an easy outing against Uganda, but they may have to raise their game against formidable Kiwis, who are one of the most consistent sides in almost all ICC multi-nation tournaments. (With IANS support)
