All round performance of Muhamad Syahadat made a difference in thrilling context between Malaysia and Uganda, as Malaysia won the match by 9 runs.
Malaysian captain, Anwar Arudin won the toss and asked his men to bat first. Bilal Hassan dismissed Malaysia’s opener, Virandeep Singh (03) early in the inning. Singh’s deputy, Arudin (09) also couldn’t hung there for long time. Brilliant bowling in the first power play from Uganda’s bowlers reduced Malaysia to 41 runs for the lost of 2 wickets. Then, Ahmed Faiz and Suhan Alagaratnam added 46 runs for the third wicket. Faiz personally scored 50 runs taking 82 balls with 6 shots which kissed the rope. After departure of Faiz, Alagaratnam tighten up his hip with Muhamad Syahadat to share yet another valuable partnership, producing 65 runs. Syahadat scored 27 runs off 43 balls. Alagaratnam smashed inning defining 61 runs off 85 balls. He slammed 3 fours and 2 sixes. Malaysia’s lower middle order couldn’t contribute too much, hence Malaysia lost all their wickets scoring 208 runs. For Uganda, Riazat Ali Shah was the pick up the bowler with 4 wickets in his account. He sent back Anwar Arudin, Suhan Alagaratnam, Shafiq Sharif and Mogan to procure the magical figure of (7.3-0-24-4). Besides him, Bilal Hassan and Masaba picked up 2 wickets each.
Chasing the target, Uganda started it on worst possible manner, losing 3 wickets for 38 runs. Uganda’s top order batsmen, Mukasa (14), Sesazi (02) and Kayondo (11) failed to impress on crucial battle against host. Mogan helped Malaysia to get rid of Mukasa and Kayondo. He bowled 8 over, expensed 31 runs and claimed 2 very important wickets. After then, collective batting effort from middle order batsmen brought Uganda back into the game. Muhumuza (38), Achelam (36), and Ali Shah (28) were among the top scorer for Uganda. Muhumuza was there till the last over, where Uganda was in need of 10 runs to win but he was very unfortunate to get run out in very first ball of the last over. Player of the match, Muhamad Syahadat picked up 4 wickets, Mogan hold on with 2 whereas Wafiq, Rahman and Aziz chipped in with a wicket each.
Malaysia will lock horn against Vanuatu and Uganda will face Bermuda.
