Abu Dhabi: The UAE broke a 15-year jinx against Ireland in a major confidence booster for the team ahead of the Asia Cup T20 campaign in Bangladesh, pulling off a thrilling five-run victory in the final warm-up match at the Shaikh Zayed Stadium.
The UAE’s last win against Ireland had come in 2001 in the World Cup qualifying tournament, The World ICC trophy in Toronto. They registered their first win against Ireland in their victorious campaign in the ICC Trophy in 1994 in Kenya.
Chasing a modest total of 134 for win, Ireland looked like running away with the match as both openers William Porterfield (72 off 60 balls) and Paul Stirling (28) went after the UAE bowlers from the onset. Ireland looked in cruise control mode and was 61 for no loss after 6.5 overs when they lost their first wicket of Stirling.
Porterfield kept milking the UAE bowling attack and reached the 50-mark in the 12th over and Ireland were 89 for one. Thereafter, the visitors fell apart following a dramatic collapse with only skipper Porterfield holding fort. Ireland lost seven wickets in the span of 35 runs and what hurt them the most was Porterfield’s wicket in the 18th over. Needing 17 from 12 balls, Porterfield top-edged the first delivery from skipper Amjad Javed for a boundary to get the equation down to 13 off 11. However on the very next ball, UAE wicket-keeper Swapnil Patil got him run out after he missed a delivery and charged out for a quick single.
In the last over, Ireland needed nine and Mohammad Shahzad was right on the money as he bowled a brilliant over with some toe-crushing deliveries and claimed the wicket of George Dockrell in the process to seal a memorable win. Shahzad finished with exceptional figures of two for 10 from two overs. Ahmad Raza and Mohammad Naveed also claimed two wickets apiece conceding just 19 and 16 runs, respectively.
“I have been playing for the UAE since the last 13 years and we have never won a game against Ireland. It was a brilliant performance from the boys and would do us a world of good going to Bangladesh,” said an elated UAE skipper Javed, adding: “Our batting needs to improve but today we showed that we can defend that total. We have the bowlers and fielders to do that.”
UAE will be taking on Afghanistan on Friday in the T20 qualifiers opener and Javed was confident of getting a positive result from that outing.
“We won a friendly against Afghanistan in Sharjah in a close match recently and they will be under pressure more than us. If we can come-up with a performance similar to this, I’m sure we can beat them. The boys will be pumped up after this result.”
Ireland’s Gary Wilson said: “Not ideal to get a loss today. I thought we were in a good position after six overs and then we kept losing wickets and lost the game. It’s been a while we have lost against them. We know their side pretty well, so pretty disappointed with what happened but we have to move on.”
Brief Scores: UAE beat Ireland by 5 runs. UAE 133/7 in 20 overs (Rohan Mustafa 20, Mohammad Shahzad 22, Swapnil Patil 31, Amjad Javed 19, Boyd Rankin 3 for 17, Max Sorensen 2 for 16); Ireland 128 for 9 in 20 overs (William Porterfield 72, Paul Stirling 28, Ahmad Raza 2 for 19, Mohammad Naveed 2 for 16, Mohammad Shahzad 2 for 10).
