TAROUBA: New Zeal­and thrashed Uganda by nine wickets in a T20 World Cup Group ‘C’ clash of already-eliminated teams in Trinidad on Friday.

New Zealand, whose exit from the global tournament was confirmed by Afghanistan’s win over Papua New Guinea on Thursday, cruised to an easy win after restricting Uganda to a paltry 40 all out off 18.4 overs, with Tim Southee taking three wickets for four runs and Trent Boult 2-7.

The Black Caps then raced to their victory target in just 5.2 overs for the loss of only one wicket.

Devon Conway top-scored for the New Zealanders with an unbeaten 22 while Finn Allen went for nine runs.

New Zealand’s run chase was assisted by a wayward bowling performance from Uganda, who sent down six wides and a no-ball.

Player of the match Southee admitted the emphatic win was little consolation for New Zeal­and’s early exit from the tournament.

“Extremely disappointed to play ourselves out of the tournament,” Southee said afterwards. “You look at the side, plenty of experience and we were not at our best in the first two games. We have a proud record in World Cups in the last ten years and it has now come to an end.”

Southee’s pace partner Boult, meanwhile, confirmed he will not play in the 2026 T20 World Cup.

“Speaking on behalf of myself, this will be my last T20 World Cup,” the 34-year-old said. “That’s all I’m going to say.”

Boult has played in four editions of the T20 World Cup since 2014 and represented New Zealand at finals in all three forms of the game. He is confident New Zealand will remain among the game’s elite.

It is “a disappointing position to be in, but any time you get to represent the country, it’s a proud moment and I thought the boys put on a great performance this afternoon”, he said.

“There’s a lot of pride in the dressing room and in playing for the country, we’ve had some great records across however many years. Unfort­unately we’ve been off the ball the last couple of weeks and that’s what it takes to not qualify.

“It’s unfortunate, but there’s still some tremendous talent inside that dressing room and coming through the ranks in New Zealand cricket, so we’re a proud nation and we’ll continue to go that way.”

Scoreboards

Uganda vs New Zealand

UGANDA:

R. Patel c Conway b Santner 2

S. Ssesazi lbw Boult 0

R. Obuya b Boult 0

A. Ramjani lbw Southee 0

K. Waiswa b Ferguson 11

R. Ali Shah c Conway b Ravindra 2

D. Nakrani c Phillips b Ravindra 4

B. Masaba not out 3

F. Achelam lbw Southee 9

J. Miyaji lbw Southee 0

C. Kyewuta c Mitchell b Santner 1

EXTRAS (B-2, LB-1, W-5) 8

TOTAL (all out, 18.4 overs) 40

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-1 (Ssesazi), 2-1 (Obuya), 3-2 (Ramjani), 4-10 (Patel), 5-15 (Waiswa), 6-23 (Shah), 7-26 (Nakrani), 8-39 (Achelam), 9-39 (Miyaji)

BOWLING: Boult 4-1-7-2; Southee 4-1-4-3; Santner 3.4-0-8-2 (3w); Ferguson 4-0-9-1 (2w); Ravindra 3-1-9-2

NEW ZEALAND:

F. Allen c Achelam b Shah 9

D. Conway not out 22

R. Ravindra not out 1

EXTRAS (LB-2, NB-1, W-6) 9

TOTAL (for one wicket, 5.2 overs) 41

FALL OF WICKET: 1-24 (Allen)

DID NOT BAT: K. Williamson, D. Mitchell, G. Phillips, J. Neesham, M. Santner, T. Southee, T. Boult, L. Ferguson

BOWLING: Kyewuta 2-0-13-0 (2w 1nb); Miyaji 2.2-0-16-0; Shah 1-0-10-1 (4w)

RESULT: New Zealand won by nine wickets.

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Tim Southee

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2024