Dubai: UAE scored an emphatic victory over Malaysia in the Word Indoor Cricket Federation World Cup at the Insportz and attributed their triumph to team combination and two months of hard training. UAE posted 80 runs and restricted Malaysia to 36.
Speaking to Gulf News, Saqib Nazir, skipper of the UAE team, explained the reasons behind his team’s impressive show in their World indoor Cup debut. “Seven players in the UAE team for this world cup are from DBMSC Steel team, which is the leading team now in domestic cricket.
For many years, all the seven players have been playing together. We just had to incorporate the other five guys and so team make-up came out well.”
The UAE team also received a boost when DBMSC stepped forward to sponsor the team for the World Cup.
“DBMSC Steel has been actively involved in indoor cricket for the past few years. When this opportunity came to sponsoring the national teams they grabbed it with both hands.
"They did not even hesitate. We are thankful to the DBMSC steel for sponsoring both the women and mens teams for the world cup,” added Saqib, who is one of the most experienced players in the squad having made his mark first with the Danube team.
The UAE players’s familiarity with the venue too has helped their cause. “Though Insportz has refurbished courts and the wickets, we have been working hard for nearly two months in this venue for the World Cup and that has worked immensely in our favour,” said Saqib.
The UAE women’s team can count themselves stronger for the experience after playing nine-time world champions Australia. Though they lost the match 137-19, they gained a lot from their experience.
UAE skipper Natasha Michael said: “Overall we were very excited to see where we stood compared to Australia, because we have only being playing indoor cricket for a month now, we are all regular outdoor cricketers.
"The girls were excited to learn from these players. And each time we have gone out to play in this tournament, starting from the first practice game right until now, all the teams have been coming up to us and saying how much they think we have improved.
"This is our first tournament, and for a team that has been only playing outdoor cricket I am so proud of the girls, everyone believes in themselves, and I believe we are only going to keep getting better.”
UAE team manager Menino Po added: “The women’s team is playing a proper indoor tournament for the first time, and we did our best to help them adapt to the indoor game. We also had limited time with the players because many of them have busy work schedules, while some are students, so just getting the group together was a challenge. But we have tried our best.”
Brief scores:
UAE (M) 80 (Vikrant Shetty 20, Mohamad Fikri 2 wkts) def Malaysia (M) 36 (Sharvin Moniandy 21, Sachin Talwar 2 wkts) Player of the Match Vikrant Shetty UAE
Australia (W) 137 (Stacey Oates 23, Subha Srinivasan 1 wkt) def UAE (W) 19 (Esha Oza 18, Stacey Oates 3 wkts) Player of the Match: Stacey Oates Australia
New Zealand (M) 104 (Kieran Butler 23, Syed Zainulabdin 2 wkts) def. India (M)1 (Syed Zainulabdin 20, Kieran Butler 3 wkts) Player of the Match Kieran Butler New Zealand
Sri Lanka (M) 69 (Kolitha Nayananda 20, Mubeen Rashid 3 wkts) def England (M) 66 (Mubeen Rashid 17, Salman Faris 3 wkts) Player of the Match Mubeen Rashid England
Australia 21 under (W) 107 (Amy Riddell 17, Emily Stanyard 1 wkt) def. England 21 under (W) 30 (Alice Baird 11, Courtney Hewitt, 3 wkts) Player of the Match Courtney Hewitt Australia
Team New Zealand 21-under (W) 138 (Jess Watkin 26, Alicia Harding 2 wkts) def. South Africa 21-under (W) 18 (Kayla Ferreira 24, Claudia Green 3 wkts) Player of the Match Claudia Green New Zealand
Team South Africa (M)100 (Willie Brink 22, Abhinav Chintamani 1 wkt) def. Singapore (M) 29 (Anand Mathivanan 15, Willie Brink 3 wkts) Player of the Match Willie Brink South Africa
