A thriller of a match it was between Uganda and Qatar national sides, as both met for a 50-overs match played out at Asian Town Cricket Stadium in Doha. Uganda managed to defend a below par total of 191 as they restricted Qatar to 186 in the end to win the match by mere 5 runs margin.
Simon Sseazi (62 off 76) provided the perfect start to Uganda after the early dismissal of Roger Mukasa for only 13 runs. Hamu Bagenda (30 off 63) and Brian Masaba (40 off 64) provided good support to Simon as the Ugandan top-order laid a good platform for the rest of the batting line-up.
However, it was not to be as Qatar bowlers came back strongly in the 2nd half of the innings as they kept picking wickets regularly to peg back the scoring with Uganda only managing to get to 191 from 109/1, eventually getting all out in 46.1 overs. Tamoor Sajjad (4/33) was the chief wrecker as he cleaned up the tail of Ugandan batting line-up after Inam-ul-Haq (2/39) and others managed to keep a hold on the scoring rate earlier on.
Qatar had the worst of starts as they lost both their openers within the first 2 overs and then their third in the 9th over to be at 36/3. What followed was a brilliant 103 runs partnership for the 4th wicket between Tamoor Sajjad (52 off 84) and Inam-ul-Haq (44 off 99) but therein lied the problem as well with both batsmen playing too many dot-balls to keep Uganda in the hunt.
A flurry of wickets fell between 139 and 152 as Qatar slipped from a strong position in the match with only last 3 wickets remaining with 40 runs still to be made in their chase. Bilal Hassun (2/47) and Deusdedit Muhumuza (2/25) bowled brilliantly in the death overs and effected few run-outs to restrict Qatar to only 186/9 in their 50 overs to win the tense thriller.
Uganda’s tour of Qatar continues with the next match being a T20 match between both the sides.
