UAE blame 'poor batting' for loss to Netherlands

Their hopes to go top in the WCL Championshi[ took a dent yesterday when they went down to the Netherlands by seven wickets.

Amjad Ali and the UAE have stumbled in their pursuit to the top of the WCL Championship.

The UAE's ICC World Championship League (WCL) hopes took a dent yesterday when they went down to the Netherlands by seven wickets.

The visitors were all out for just 96 and the Netherlands knocked the winning runs with more than 28 overs left to clinch the first of two WCL matches at Hezelaarweg in Rotterdam yesterday.

Mudassar Bukhari and Timm van der Gugten, who shared the new ball, took four wickets apiece in a combined 19 overs after the Netherlands won the toss and sent the UAE to bat first.

Khurram Khan, the UAE captain, was forthright and took the blame for his team's poor batting display.

"It was a bit overcast, the ball was seaming but that was no excuse for our poor batting," he said.

"It was one of those days when everything we did went wrong. We have the second game on Monday and we'll try to bounce back."

The UAE team have played very little cricket during the tour with only one session of batting opportunity in the four-day ICC Intercontinental Cup, because of the persistent rain.

"We spent much of the time indoors but we can't take that as a reason," Khurram said. "I think we didn't apply ourselves. We went for shots that weren't there to play and paid the penalty."

Amjad Ali (17) and Haroon Iftikhar (10) gave the UAE a flying start. They had put on 20 in the first two overs and pushed the score to 25 in the fourth over when Bukhari ended the stand by bowling Iftikhar for 10.

It signalled a dramatic turnaround when Shaiman Anwar, Saqib Ali and Khurrram, all fell without scoring within five deliveries to leave them tottering at 26 for four in 4.3 overs.

Vikrant Shetty departed at 36 and Amjad was back in the pavilion 10 runs later to leave the UAE at 46 for seven.

They were 66 for nine before the last pair Rohan Mustafa and Manjula Guruge rebuilt the inning with a stubborn 29-run stand to take the score to 96.

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