Rain sinks UAE’s chances again in Emerging Teams Asia Cup
Opener Ashfaq shines in the tournament with consistent knocks
Rain marred the UAE’s chances of reaching the Emerging Teams Asia Cup semi-finals after their match against Hong Kong got washed out in Karachi on Sunday.
The UAE had beaten Bangladesh by 97 runs in the opener. They then lost to Pakistan by nine wickets, but restricted Hong Kong to 87 for four in 31 overs when rain arrived. Bangladesh, who lost to the UAE, went on to beat Pakistan and clinch the last four spot along with Pakistan.
Though rain had stopped the UAE-Hong Kong match, the water leaked all over the square when the groundsmen removed the covers off, forcing the organisers to declare it as a no result match.
Incidentally in September, UAE had missed out to qualify for the Asia Cup after they lost to Hong Kong in another rainaffected match in Malaysia.
In their opening match against Bangladesh. UAE posted 267 in 49.4 overs through opener Ashfaq Ahmad, who cracked 98 runs off 93 balls with 16 boundaries and a six along with his skipper and opener Rohan Mustafa, who scored 40 runs off 70 balls with six boundaries. Wicketkeeper Ghulam Shabber hit 52 runs off 57 balls with four boundaries and three sixes while Shaiman Anwar too chipped in with 34 runs.
In reply, Bangladesh were restricted to 170 in 36.5 overs through deadly spells from Ahmad Raza (4 for 50) and Imran Haider (4 for 35).
Proud performance
Speaking to Gulf News, Raza said: “It felt really good to contribute to team’s victory against a Test playing nation team. We had a good day against them and we should be proud of our performance.”
In the second match, the UAE posted a challenging 239 for nine in 50 overs with opener Ahmad top-scoring with 69 runs and Mohammad Usman chipping in with an unbeaten 51. Pakistan raced to victory by losing only one wicket in 39 overs.
Sri Lanka is hosting the Group A matches, knockout stage matches and the finals of this tournament, while Pakistan hosted the Group B matches. The Group A were made up of Sri Lanka, India, Afghanistan and Oman while Group B had Pakistan, Bangladesh, UAE and Hong Kong.