DUBAI // Amjad Javed, the UAE captain, insists his side are capable of forcing a rare win over Ireland to earn a place in the semi-finals of the first Desert T20.
The two sides meet at Dubai International Stadium on Wednesday afternoon, with a place in Friday’s play-offs on the line.
Although Ireland are still widely regarded as one of the two leading Associate sides, both sides have had troubled recent pasts in the T20 format.
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However, Amjad says the UAE will start the match full of confidence, based on the win they had over the Irish — the first in 15 years — in Abu Dhabi last year.
“When you beat such a big team, you generally have confidence in your dressing room,” Amjad said.
“We have beaten Ireland, and the guys are confident they can do it again. When we played against Afghanistan [in the five-wicket loss on Monday], we were playing against a highly-ranked team. They have a lot more experience than us.
“I am pleased we fought hard against them, but they have 20 or 30 per cent more experience than us, because of the exposure.
“If we can raise it in the next game against Ireland, and give confidence to the guys who are playing for the first time against them, it should come good for us.”
As a marker of their recent downturn in the 20 over format, Ireland are the lowest ranked side in the Desert T20 — among sides that do have a place in the ICC standings. Namibia, the other team in Pool A, are unranked.
However, Owais Shah, the interim coach, says the national team will be focusing on their own game, rather than that of their opponents.
“Ireland might have struggled, but we are just viewing it as our big game when we play them,” Shah, the former England batsman, said.
“We are trying to qualify to the semi-finals. You can’t take a team like that lightly, regardless of whether they have struggled or not.
“It is not like we are flying high, either. We have a lot of work to do. We need to play smarter cricket. As long as we look after our game, we should hopefully come out on the right side of the result.
“We respect them very much, they are a very good cricket team, and this will be a huge game for us.”
So far, the UAE have managed a last-ball win over Namibia, while they appeared to be ahead of the game against Afghanistan last time out until they leaked 20 runs in their 19th over in the field to hurry to defeat.
Performances have not exactly been sparkling, but there is a tangible feeling that the listless displays of 2016 have been consigned to the past.
“I don’t think we have to change anything,” Ajmad said. “We have a problem in the batting, but slowly that is getting improved.
“Rohan Mustafa and Shaiman Anwar are scoring runs. If we can get some other individuals to score at least 20 or 30, I think we can easily score 160-plus, which should be enough.”
Match reports
Ireland beat Namibia to set up a winner-takes-all match against the UAE for a place in the Desert T20 play-offs. Ireland won by five wickets with two balls to spare for their first points in Pool A, ending a six-game losing streak.
The Irish got lucky when chasing down a 147-run target and Namibia decided not to give the ball to their best bowler Bernard Scholtz at the death. The left-arm spinner had bowled a tight spell of three overs for 13 runs. Jan Frylinck got the ball instead and ended up as Namibia’s most expensive bowler. The move caught even Ireland by surprise.
“Watching from the sideline, I thought he [Scholtz] would’ve bowled the fourth to last over from the far end,” Ireland captain William Porterfield told Espncricinfo.com. “But they obviously had plans.”
Sarel Burger, his Namibian counterpart, said that Scholtz was feeling that Ireland’s batsmen “were looking to take him on,” and hence “we decided to go more towards the death bowlers.”
In Pool B, Scotland secured their spot into the final round with a seven-run victory over the Netherlands.
Having lost their top three batsmen for 13 runs Scotland posted 148 for seven and managed to bowl out their rivals. Oman, with a better run rate, take on Scotland next while the Dutch play Hong Kong for the remaining play-off spot.
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