Uganda Beat Zambia by 87 Runs — Olipa Gerald's Seven Sixes Open the Abuja Qualifier

The first ball of a tournament carries a particular weight, and Uganda answered it by choosing to bat on Nigeria Cricket Federation Oval 1. They lost Robinson Obuya in the first over and Raghav Dhawan and Riazat Ali Shah by the eighth, but Riazat's 38 from 20 had already set a tempo, and at 73 for 3 Olipa Gerald took over. His 82 came from 42 balls with five fours and seven sixes, and by the time Ismail Kara bowled him in the 19th over Uganda were 181 for 5. Juma Miyagi's 11 from three balls took them to 195 for 6.

Zambia lost Shadreck Malama in the first over and then Robert Lungu and Ismail Kara to consecutive balls from Joseph Baguma in the fifth. Joyeb Chand's 38 and Jakir Patel's 23, six sixes between them, made it 71 for 3 in the 11th over, but from 87 for 4 Zambia lost three wickets for one run and were all out for 108 in 17.3 overs. Uganda won by 87 runs.

Gerald walked in at 45 for 2 in the fifth over and was out at 181 for 5 in the 19th; of the 136 runs scored while he was at the crease, 82 were his, and 62 of those came in boundaries. Sumeet Verma's 21 and Alpesh Ramjani's 10 were the right sort of innings around him, rotating the strike for stands of 52 and 56 while Gerald cleared the ropes. Uganda hit ten sixes in all, and Riazat Ali Shah's early 38 from 20 meant they never had to rebuild from scratch.

With the ball Uganda shared the work. Miyagi took the first wicket and then two in three balls in the 13th over, Dadabhai bowled and Zahirbhai Patel caught behind by Kakuru. Baguma's four wickets cost 44, which tells you Zambia went after him, but they were the four that mattered: Lungu, Kara, Zakir Husain Patel and the top-scorer Chand. Ramjani's four overs for 13 squeezed the middle, and he finished it off with the wickets of Jakir Patel and Joshep Zulu.

Zambia's bowlers had their moments. Soyeb Pendi struck in the first over, Joshep Zulu removed Dhawan and Verma, and Ismail Kara came back to bowl Gerald and trap Ramjani lbw in the 19th over. Uganda were 182 for 6 at that point. What hurt was the passage in between, when Gerald and his partners added 108 for the fourth and fifth wickets in 67 balls.

The chase needed a long innings and got two brisk ones. Chand hit three sixes in 38 from 28 and Jakir Patel three in 23 from 23, but nobody else reached 15, and the slide from 87 for 4 to 91 for 8 in under two overs settled it. Zambia conceded 13 extras and hit seven sixes of their own; the gap between the sides was the depth of the batting rather than the power.

At 30 for 1 Zambia had a platform of sorts. Baguma bowled Robert Lungu with the third ball of the fifth over and Ismail Kara, who had bowled Gerald in the 19th over of the Uganda innings, first ball for nought. A chase of 196 does not survive losing two of its hitters in two deliveries, and from then on Zambia were batting to stay in the game rather than to win it. It was the first morning of the tournament, and Uganda had already shown both edges of the blade.

This match didn't have a CricIntel preview — we'll have full analysis for the next encounter.

Uganda went on to beat Lesotho by five wickets on October 21 and, with Nigeria, are one of two sides on two wins from two after the first two days. Zambia lost to Nigeria by nine wickets the same day and are without a win. The six-team round robin in Abuja runs until October 25; Uganda still have Nigeria, Mozambique and Gambia to play, Zambia still have Lesotho, Mozambique and Gambia.