Debutants Uganda survived an early batting collapse at Providence Stadium in Guyana to register their maiden win in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup as they defeated Papua New Guinea by three wickets in a Group C clash. Frank Nsubuga and Riazat Ali Shah played an instrumental role in helping Uganda seal a thriller. 

Uganda’s skipper Brain Masaba was lucky at the toss and invited Papua New Guinea to put a score on the board.

Papua New Guinea got off to the worst possible start as they lost their captain and one of the most experienced batters in the line-up on the second ball of the match.

Tony Ura and Sese Bau added 17 runs for the second wicket before Cosmas Kyewuta got rid of Bau to jolt Papua New Guinea again.

Bau’s wicket opened the floodgates and Papua New Guinea never managed to recover from the setback. They folded for 77 in 19.1 overs as Uganda’s bowlers operated with plenty of discipline and made shot-making extremely difficult for Papua New Guinea.

Alpesh Ramjani (2/17), Kyewuta (2/17), Juma Miyagi (2/10) and Masaba (1/17) all chipped in with wickets but Nsubuga was the standout bowler as he recorded the most economical spell in ICC Men’s T20 World Cup history with figures of 4-2-4-2.

Uganda’s chase also got off to a horrendous start. They lost three quick wickets and were languishing at 6 for the loss of three wickets in 2.1 overs.

Alei Nao and Norman Vanua gave a lot of hope for Papua New Guinea up front as they made early inroads into Uganda’s batting order.

However, a resilient knock by the Player of the Match (POTM) Riazat Ali Shah (33 off 56 deliveries) turned the tide in Uganda’s favour and they eventually chased the total down with 10 balls to spare. Riazat relied on rotation of strike and struck just the solitary boundary during the course of his knock.