Usman’s first ton gives UAE crucial lead

Shreekumar also followed his skipper soon, as he was bowled by Chad Soper with the scoreboard reading 80.

Shaiman Anwar’s woeful form with the bat seems to have carried from the ODIs into the four-day match. He, once again after getting a start, holed out to Lega Siaka at mid-off for 10. At lunch, UAE were 106 for 3 and later Usman and Shahzad took total control of the proceedings to get the hosts well past the 200-mark by the end of 72 overs. PNG finally managed to end the long vigil of Shahzad after he decided to give the charge to off-spinner Vala and was stumped by Tony Ura.

Central contracts

Later with the wicket of Usman, Dai emerged as the best bowler for PNG with figures of 32-10-83-3.

UAE skipper Mustafa hailed Usman’s knock saying, “As I said before, there is not just one person who can score big runs, there are other people who can do it. Usman played really well out there and the wicket was slow. It wasn’t easy to bat on that wicket and he did really well and very happy for him. He’s one of the players on the central contracts and I want those players to perform very well. He showed his class and did a great job for team.”

Mustafa was also confident of his bowlers running through PNG batting line again and sealing the win.

“The ball is coming a little bit slow but we are in a good position and I think the game is in our hands. We have four wickets remaining and we are very much in with a chance to win. We have a group of bowlers who can take 10 wickets easily. Let’s hope for the best.”