Restricting Afghanistan the way we did a huge bonus: Brian Masaba

Uganda may have fallen well short in their first World Cup game against Afghanistan in Guyana, but skipper Brian Masaba is pleased with the way he bowlers helped the side claw back into the game in the last six overs. Afghanistan were cruising at 152/0 after 14 overs, with both their openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz (76) and Ibrahim Zadran (70) going great guns. 

Rashid Khan's men would have dreamt of getting to at least 220 if not more. However, once Masaba got the wicket of Zadran in the 15th over, it was one-way traffic as Uganda conceded just 31 runs and picked up five wickets in the last six overs.

That's a huge bonus for us. In a T20 game, very often the game can go very quickly in the last five overs," Masaba said at the post-match press conference. 

"Especially considering the fact that we are under the pump for most of the innings. So to come back like that and restrict them the way we did, it's a huge bonus for us. And we'll look to carry that into our games going forward."

Masaba, who was the pick of the bowlers for the Cricket Cranes with figures of 2/21, feels that his bowlers did not execute their plans well in the first 14 overs.

"There's a couple of things we'd spoken about that we didn't do so well. I thought we gave away too many boundaries. And to a side like Afghanistan, you do that and you're going to get punished. So yeah, I thought we could have bowled a bit better, maybe bowled a bit more to our plans but we didn't execute that well," he said.

However, he does not regret opting to bowl first. "In the context of the game I thought it was a good decision. They obviously are a side that love chasing, we've seen that from history, and we backed ourselves to go out there and bowl well and try and restrict them," Masaba observes. 

"Unfortunately, our execution wasn't that great and they got off to a flyer, but we pulled the game back in the second half of our bowling innings. And I look back at that decision and I don't think it was a bad decision."

Uganda, who play their next two matches in Guyana, will hope to put up a better show against Papua New Guinea (PNG) next on June 5 (Wednesday). 

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