Yet again, team Uganda coaches Johan Rudolph and Henry Okecho were left disillusioned men after the side set only 88 runs for 8 before losing to hosts United Arab Emirates by eight wickets in the ICC Global Twenty20 Qualifier opener on Friday.
The tacticians were once again left with similar questions after the top order failed to click just like it was during the six-wicket warm up match losses to Papua New Guinea and Afghanistan. But when Rudolph and his assistant hoped to avoid misery at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium Nursery 1 Oval, brittle batting oozed again.
Opener Roger Mukasa managed 11 runs off 17 balls but as he looked to gain momentum at the crease, he was run out by Swapnil Patil for the first wicket at 18 after five overs. Then Ugandans were 25-4 by the ninth over as the top batsmen fell in quick succession but Philemon Mukobe and skipper Davis Karashani made 22 each as they tried to bring back the innings to life.
Jonathan Ssebanja struck 11 more but three others scored less than three as UAE fielders seemed to prepare an easy job for their batsmen. Mohammad Azam (17 off 42) and eventual man-of-match winner Shaiman Anwar (54 off 45) shared an opening wicket-stand of 70 runs before the former returned the ball for a catch to seamer Brian Masaba (2/15) after 11.2 overs.
Two balls later, Karashani caught Anwar for Masaba’s second wicket but UAE found 15 more to claim two points with 34 balls remaining. They top group A with a better Net Run Rate of +1.809 while Uganda are bottom. The start to Uganda’s road to Bangladesh World Cup next year has been poor in comparison to last year’s to Sri Lanka where they beat USA and Oman before losing seven in a row.
ICC TWENTY20 GLOBAL QUALIFIER – UAE FRIDAY’S RESULT
Uganda 88/8 UAE 89/2 Uganda lost by eight wickets