UAE feasted on Bahrain´s amateurish fielding to put up a challenging total of 223/6 in the allotted 40 overs after electing to bat. The spinners then joined the party to bowl out Bahrain, which had registered an easy 125-run win over Kuwait on Wednesday, for 150 in 33.1 overs to complete a comfortable victory.
Opener Ruben Z Abraham made a fluent 50 off 70 balls with seven fours after getting an early reprieve from Bahraini wicketkeeper Sankarsh Suresh when he was on 26 while No 3 Bhargav Venkata Krishnan made most of at least half a dozen untaken chances, the first of which he offered while on one, to topscore with 95 runs for UAE.
He hit a dozen fours and a six in his 99-ball innings that looked to be a match-winning effort at the end of the first innings itself even though Bahrain´s coach begged to differ. Former Pakistani Test bowler Mohsin Kamal, who has taken charge of the team since January 9, felt that his team was capable of chasing even such big a target.
The strapping fast bowler, who played nine Tests and 19 one-dayers in between 1984-1994, said that even after such a disastrous fielding performance his team could have won the match if his set batsmen had continued to bat on a bit longer.
Vice-captain Sameer Yousuf, who came in at the fall of opener Vaishnav Govindan (5) through a direct hit in the fourth over, added 80 crucial runs for the fifth wicket with Samuel Veigas to revive Bahrain after it had slumped to 43/4 in 8.2 overs. But once Yousuf was stumped by Ritiki Bagchi in the 25th over, the wheels came off the Bahrain innings and it folded for 150 with UAE skipper Muhammad Salar Waqar returning figures of 4/16 in 3.1 overs of spin.
Yousuf made 55 of 64 deliveries studded with nine fours while Viegas made an attacking 35-ball 39 laced with five hits to the fence.
UAE coach Shah Hussain refused to credit his team´s victory to the opposition´s dismal fielding. "It´s part of the game. We also dropped a few," the former Pakistani first class player said pointing to a couple of dropped chances of Yousuf.
He praised his spinners for making up for poor bowling from the medium pacers but said that his team was never really worried about losing the match. "We have played against Bahrain many times in the past 10 years and have never lost a match at any level till now. So, we were not worried at any stage," the super confident coach reasoned in a jocular vein.
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