UAE target comeback against Zimbabwe
dubai — After a chastening defeat in the first one-day international on the tour of Zimbabwe, the UAE have gone back to the drawing board in an effort to turn things around.
The turnaround time has been short with just a day between matches but coach Dougie Brown hoped that his batsmen will stand the test over the course of the series.
Having pinpointed those flaws in the batting, Brown hoped his side can erase those when they two teams meet again in Harare for the second one-day international on Friday.
“Based on what we have seen, there are a few things we want to make sure we improve,” Brown told the Khaleej Times from Harare.
“Certainly, with the bat, we have got to find a way. That is really important even if we lose the toss. I suspect all these games will be fairly scrappy as the team batting first are going to be under pressure as long as the bowling team bowls well. We were put under pressure today and we hope
that we can change that around on Friday,” he added.
Brown said that the toss has been a major factor, especially with the conditions that they have faced but added that they would have work around it.
“If we happen to lose the toss, then there are certain things we are working on tomorrow to make sure we find a way to score the runs, irrespective of conditions,” said the 49-year-old.
The former England and Scotland international also reiterated that they have structured the programme keeping this series in mind and was confident that his lads will show more heft in the remaining three ODIs.
“Also, to put the record straight as well, we have played 12 straight 50-over games since January. We have only played four T20 games. So, it is very much weighted towards 50-over cricket at the moment,” he said.
“That will change later in the year as we prepare T20 World Cup qualifiers. We have certainly played more 50-over cricket than we do 20-over cricket. So, there are no excuses regarding the programme,” added Brown, who took over as coach two years ago.
The UAE came up short against the Zimbabweans in the first ODI, mustering only 110 after being put into bat. It clearly wasn’t a total that they could fight with as the hosts ran out seven-wicket victors.
And Brown hoped that it was just an aberration, considering the fact that the UAE won by five wickets, chasing 228 against a Zimbabwe Chairman’s XI in their tour game, earlier in the week.
Pacer Qadeer Ahmed picked up three wickets and leg spinner Imran Haider two to keep the Chairman’s XI to 228.
UAE opener Ashfaq Ahmed then shepherded the chase with an unbeaten 131, with southpaw Ghulam Shabber contributing 40.
The onus will be on their batting mainstay Shaiman Anwar as well as others like Chirag Suri and Rohan Mustafa to come up with big scores.