New Zealand Take Massive Victory Over Uganda

The Blackcaps have finally picked up a first win at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup with a victory over Uganda.

A strong New Zealand performance has given them victory over Uganda with the Cranes faltering in the batting department with the seamers applying pressure early on to bowl them out for 40.

Trent Boult grabbed two wickets in the opening over with Simon Ssezai and Robinson Obuya departing for a golden duck.

There was some resistance by Ronak Patel and Alpesh Ramjani who survived through the next couple of overs, until Tim Southee joined in on the wicket-taking action, trapping Ramjani leg before wicket. 

Number five, Kenneth Waiswa played a crucial hand in picking up Uganda’s run rate adding in 11 from 18, whilst losing the wicket of Patel for two.

Success did keep building for New Zealand with the introduction of the spin of Mitchell Santner and Rachin Ravindra to the bowling crease. Both spinners applied the pressure that had already been built by the pacers. 

The Cranes did lose wickets steadily throughout the innings, with Ravindra bagging Riazat Ali Shah for two and Dinesh Nakrani for four, with a diving catch by Glenn Phillips in the deep assisting.

Fred Achelam and captain Brian Musaba chimed in with a decent 13-run stand for the ninth wicket, including an over of eight off Ravindra. 

Even though their team wasn’t putting in their best effort with the bat, the Ugandan fans in the crowd were still celebrating each moment in the game, and giving loads of support to their nation.

The end of the innings wrapped up in a rather quick fashion as Southee had Achelam for nine and Juma Miyagi for a golden duck. Cosmas Kyewuta was the last one out, to Santner for one. 

In pursuit of 41 for victory, Uganda bowled well early on with Finn Allen struggling to get runs on the board early, as is usually expected from the New Zealand opener.

Ali Shah got the only wicket of the New Zealand innings with Allen falling for nine.

Devon Conway finished on 22* and Ravindra on 1*.

New Zealand’s final game is against Papua New Guinea at 2:30 am on Tuesday.