"5 wicket haul at the World Cup stage is not a cup of tea" - Fans hail Fazalhaq Farooqi for sensational spell of 5/9 vs Uganda in 2024 T20 World Cup

Afghanistan left-arm pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi produced a sensational spell in his side's 2024 T20 World Cup opener against Uganda in Guyana on Monday, June 3. The Afghans were put into bat and posted a competitive 183/5 in 20 overs.

In defense of their total, Farooqi struck in the first over by picking up wickets off the second and third deliveries to rock Uganda's run chase. While he could not complete the hat-trick, his two-wicket first over was only a sign of things to come.

Farooqi began his third over with wickets off consecutive deliveries but again missed out on a hat-trick. However, he completed his five-fer with a third wicket in the over off the final delivery.

Farooqi eventually finished with incredible figures of 5/9 in four overs as Afghanistan won the contest by 125 runs to open their World Cup campaign. It was the second-best bowling figures by an Afghan bowler in T20Is behind only Rashid Khan's 5/3 against Ireland in 2017.

Fans on X hailed Farooqi for the sparkling bowling display with the following reactions:

The praises continued coming Farooqi's way with one fan saying:

"FAZALHAQ FAROOQI has benefited a lot from playing IPL, bowling in front of big players, one gets to learn a lot from him."

"Today Fazal Haq Farooqi was on another level, great seam and swing bowling display," said a fan.

"Wow Congratulations to Fazal Haq Farooqi and Afghanistan. 5 wickets haul at the World Cup stage is not a cup of tea," a fan tweeted.

"I have missed a hat-trick 7-8 times in my career" - Fazalhaq Farooqi

Fazalhaq Farooqi jokingly said that this wasn't the first time he has missed out on completing a hat-trick after being adjudged the Player of the Match for his sensational bowling against Uganda.

The 23-year-old's bowling figures were also the fourth-best in Men's T20 World Cup history behind Ajantha Mendis, Rangana Herath and Umar Gul.

"(On missing hat-trick) I have missed a hat-trick 7-8 times in my career. It’s not something in my control but I will try better in the future. (Plans today) I tried to bowl into the wicket and see what happens. It swung from the beginning and later on I tried to bowl slower since it wasn’t coming onto the bat that nicely. Playing franchise cricket surely helps. When you play big games with big players, it helps you coming into a tournament like this," said Farooqi at the post-match presentation.

Farooqi boasts excellent T20I numbers, with 42 wickets at an average of 20.33 and an economy of 6.60 in 35 games.

Afghanistan will look to continue their winning run in their next outing against New Zealand at the same venue on Friday, June 7.