Amjad targets series victory

Amjad Javed believes UAE cricket is seeing the benefits of stable leadership as they target a series win against the Netherlands in Amstelveen today.

The national team won the opening match of three to be played between the sides this week by three wickets on Monday.

Repeat that success and they will clinch a third series victory this year, following recent wins over Papua New Guinea and Oman. The upturn in form has coincided with the permanent appointments of Dougie Brown and Rohan Mustafa to the roles of coach and captain respectively.

The previous 12 months had been characterised by poor performances on the field, and chaos off it, with four coaches filling the position in that space of time.

Amjad himself was one of five players to captain the team in the space of a little over two years, and he says the stable atmosphere around the side is having an effect.

“When we started last year, it was not good as the coaches would keep on changing,” Amjad said. “We had three different coaches. Now we have Dougie, the team is stable with him. The ideas and the mentality he brings to the team is working for us.

“We know there is only one coach, and he is not getting changed after this. The boys are enjoying his work, and you can see the results, after beating PNG and winning the first game against Netherlands.

“The team has a really good morale, we want to win every game we play, and the players all want to play their part in a winning team.”

The opening-day win against a Netherlands side, who are without three of their leading first-class players, was something of a surprise given the UAE’s lack of match practice in the approach. Ramadan and summer meant the side had been restricted to playing 20-over cricket and training inside.

Amjad reckons the side have benefited from the rest. As one of the few players in the side to have toured the Netherlands before, he also found the conditions to his liking, as he sent down a decisive three-wicket burst in the opening match.

“I was pretty sure about these conditions,” he said. “You don’t have to be really express to take wickets, you have to bowl a line where the batsmen will struggle and I managed to do that.”

Brown termed the first match an “outstanding” win, but says there is still much to improve on.

“There was a lot of hard work that went into this first win, and it was a lot closer than it should have been,” Brown said.

“Throughout the course of the day we played good cricket, and there are lots of areas we can improve upon going into the second game.”