Windhoek, Nov 30 (IANS): Uganda have joined Namibia in qualifying for the 2024 Men's T20 World Cup, to be held in the West Indies and USA, making it the first time they will be a part of an ICC senior men’s World Cup tournament.

In the last round of matches in the Africa leg of the Men’s T20 World Cup qualifiers, Uganda managed to become only the fifth African nation to feature in a ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, after beating Rwanda. Uganda’s nine-wicket win over Rwanda meant that Zimbabwe will miss out on playing a global tournament for the second successive time, despite looking on course to win their game against Nigeria.

In the qualifier, Uganda overcame Tanzania in their opening game by a comfortable margin of eight wickets. However, in the next game, a brilliant 4/17 from Namibian fast-bowling all-rounder David Wiese consigned them to a six-wicket defeat.

Uganda bounced back by defeating the Test-playing Zimbabwe by five wickets. Their bowling effort led by Dinesh Nakrani (3/14), restricted Zimbabwe to 136/7. During the chase, the Uganda were guided by handy knocks from Riazat Ali Shah (42) and Alpesh Ramjani (40) to win by five wickets in a major upset result.

Lifted by this effort, the side then overcame Nigeria with ease, and followed up with a 33-run win over Kenya and got a comfortable nine-wicket win over Rwanda. Uganda’s top-notch bowling effort bowled out Rwanda for merely 65, which they chased down in 8.1 overs.

On the other hand, Zimbabwe, who suffered losses at the hands of Namibia and Uganda in the Africa qualifier, missed out on the bus for the 2024 Men’s T20 World Cup. The side had failed to finish in top two of 2019 and 2023 Men’s ODI World Cup qualifiers to miss out on the main tournaments in England and India.

Zimbabwe had featured in the 2022 Men’s T20 World Cup in Australia, where they'd garnered a famous one-run win over Pakistan at Perth in the Super 12 stage, after missing out on playing in 2021 edition due to ICC suspension for government interference in cricket administration.