Esha Oza insists tri-nations series success shows UAE 'are progressing well as team'

National team captain dominated tournament that included Test nation Zimbabwe and Namibia side that had soundly beaten them last time out

Esha Oza took over the UAE captaincy from Chaya Mughal. Chris Whiteoak / The National

Esha Oza says the UAE’s crushing tri-series win in Windhoek is evidence the national team are making definite progress in the women’s game.

The UAE dominated a tournament that included Test nation Zimbabwe, as well as a Namibia side that had soundly beaten them the last time the sides met.

Since that 4-2 series loss to the Namibians in Dubai last year, the national team have enjoyed some notable highs, as well as some painful lows.

They were within 15 runs of a shock win against Sri Lanka and making it to what would have been a home Women’s T20 World Cup.

Following that rousing display in the World Cup Qualifier, they then went to the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka with hopes soaring over causing an upset. What followed, though, were limp defeats against India, Pakistan and Nepal.

Their performance in bouncing back in Namibia spoke much of the character of Oza’s young team. They lost just once, and that too only narrowly against Zimbabwe, and won the other five matches in the three-team tournament.

Oza said her side were determined to show their improved results – including a last-ball win against Zimbabwe in Abu Dhabi a couple of years ago – were not by chance.

“People could say it was a fluke and a one-off,” said Oza, who herself scored 84 in one of their two wins against Zimbabwe in Windhoek. “Even before this series, we had only beaten Zimbabwe once, and people could say that was a fluke, too, that we had just had a good day.

“But now we have beaten them twice out of three games, and the one we lost also went to the last over, so it shows it is no fluke. It is our hard work paying off. We are progressing well as a team.”

While the wins against Zimbabwe will have been more widely appreciated, given their status as full members of the ICC, the successes against Namibia were gratefully received by the UAE, too.

Their last meeting had come at a seminal moment for the women’s game in the Emirates. It was the first series in which Oza was taking over the captaincy from Chaya Mughal.

“Getting the better of them 3-0 this time was great,” Oza said. “The tournaments we had played coming up to this series – the global Qualifier and the Asia Cup – we have put the lessons from those to good use now.

“We are executing our plans a lot better, and we know a lot better what we need to be doing. We set a few goals that we wanted to achieve in this tournament, and we ticked so many boxes.

“The way we played our cricket, we were more fearless [compared with] how we had been before, and that showed in the results.”

Oza acknowledged that her side had been dejected after their performance in Sri Lanka at the Asia Cup, but said they still have a clear idea of where they want to get to.

“There were high expectations, especially after the Sri Lanka game,” Oza said. “We had high expectations that we could roll over one of the top sides, and also that we could perform better against Nepal, but we couldn’t do either.

“We were disappointed for a bit, but it just means you have to get up again and work harder. That’s what we did. When we met up again for our next training session, we said, ‘These are the things we want to work on’.

“They might not work straight away, and it might take six months to play the way we want to, but it is about giving it everything and seeing how it works out. If you don’t try doing that, it is never going to happen.”

In Windhoek, the UAE batters breached the 140-run mark in two of the six matches. Theertha Satish, the wicketkeeper-batter, was the leading run-scorer in the campaign with 245 runs at an average of 61.25 and a strike-rate of 141.61.

“Something we talked about was playing more attacking cricket,” Oza said. “If you see the scores around the world, women’s T20Is have evolved. It is no longer a game if you make 120. You need 140 on the board.

“It is the same in franchise leagues. Teams aren’t stopping at 120. You see 120 scored in The Hundred, and that is only 100 balls.

“Coach Ahmed [Raza] has been insisting we work on improving our strike rates, and playing more freely and attacking, especially in the Powerplay and towards the end of the innings.

“Even with the ball, we used to be more conservative with the way we bowl, and now we are more attacking. We are attacking the stumps, even if the batters are going after us. That is working for us as a team.”