Abu Dhabi: Veteran batsman Shaiman Anwar tore Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) bowling attack apart en route to his maiden unbeaten T20 ton to see the UAE to a series win at the Shaikh Zayed Stadium on Friday.
The UAE had taken a 1-0 lead going into the final two T20s slotted on the same day and went on to win both the outings to complete the rout. UAE won the second T20 in the morning session by 30 runs before returning in the afternoon to win the third by five wickets.
“I’m extremely pleased with the ton. I had scored a ton in the World Cup against Ireland and to get a T20 century feel great. I’m more happy because I have scored those runs in the team’s winning cause,” said Anwar, who had struggled with the bat in the ODI series, but was showing signs of coming back to his true self with his decent knock in the four-day match and by top scoring in the first T20 with 39.
However, on Friday, he took his batting to another level. More importantly, the knock came after the UAE had made a disastrous start after being put into bat, losing both openers in the first over of Norman Varuna.
After steadying the innings, Anwar got to his 50 from 40 delivers with a boundary through extra cover off John Reva.
Thereafter, he was simply unstoppable and it was an absolute carnage of the clueless PNG bowling attack.
Apart from Mahuru Dai, who finished with figures of 4-0-17-0, the rest of the PNG bowlers were carted around the park.
Anwar cruised to his ton in no time, taking just another 20 more deliveries to reach his unbeaten innings of 117. His innings was studded with six sixes and 10 hits to the ropes. Chasing 180 was always going to be an uphill task for the visitors. With Amjad Javed and Mohammad Naveed repeating the same performance of the first T20 with the ball — finishing with three wickets apiece — PNG were bowled out on the last delivery of the 20th over for 150.
In the second ODI played earlier in the day, Anwar couldn’t replicate his heroics and was out for one but PNG’s innings total of 120 was never going to test the formidable UAE batting line. They recovered from three down for six and riding on knocks from Muhammad Usman 58 and Rameez Shahzad 47 went on to surpass the total in 19.1 overs losing five wickets.
Brief Scores: Second T20: UAE beat Papua New Guinea by 30 runs. UAE 180 for 3 in 20 overs (Shaiman Anwar 117 not out, Rameez Shahzad 29 not out) Papua New Guinea 150 in 20 overs (Lega Siaka 25, Tony Ura 20, Sese Bau 30, Jack Vare 38, Amjad Javed 3 for 38, Mohammad Naveed 3 for 18).
Third T20: UAE beat Papua New Guinea by five wickets. Papua New Guinea 128 for 5 in 20 overs (Tony Ura 29, Lega Siaka 31, Assad Vala 13, Mahuru Dai 24, Rohan Mustafa 2 for 27) UAE 130 for 5 in 19.1 overs (Muhammad Usman 58, Rameez Shahzad 47).
