UAE under-15 captain confident of good performance

Pranav Rai, the skipper of the UAE under-15 team, is confident of a good performance from his team in the Asian Cricket Council Under-15 Cup.

"We have an all-round side with a good combination of talented batsmen and bowlers," remarked Rai to Gulf News.

"Most of us have been playing together for the Sharjah Cricket Council teams and Insportz. So we all know each other very well.

"Recently we all played in the four-nation Al Madina Under-15 tournament organised by the Dubai Cricket Council," added Rai, who led Emirates Cricket Training (ECT) India team to victory in this tournament.

Rai is a Grade 10 student at the Delhi Private School, (DPS) Sharjah and has been a consistent scorer as an opening batsman in the inter-school tournaments.

"We do not have very quick pacers but our medium pacers can maintain a good line and length. Our bowling strength will be our spinners. We have three good spinners in Syed Mohsin Anwar Jafri, Ali Bashir and Vignesh Rajan.

"Under coach Abid Ali and Hussain we have also been working hard on our fielding," revealed Rai, who was moulded into a fine opening batsman by DPS coach Vikram Dutt.

Alawi Shukri Saleh Alawi, a left-handed batsman and right-arm pacer, is the vice-captain. Aashish Dhingra will be UAE's wicketkeeper.

Fifteen countries are taking part in this tournament commencing tomorrow.

Singapore, Hong Kong, Maldives, Oman, Nepal and Qatar teams have already arrived. Malaysia and Thailand are expected today. UAE begin their campaign tomorrow with a match against Maldives at the Sharjah Stadium.

Matches will also be held at the Dubai Cricket Council's two turf grounds and at the new Abu Dhabi Cricket stadium.

The teams have been divided into four groups and the round-robin stage will be held from April 11 to 17.

The quarterfinal is scheduled for April 19 and and the semifinals will be held on April 20.

The final is scheduled for April 22.

A total of 31 matches will be played at the three centres during the next 12 days.