UAE fall to Netherlands defeat despite Shaiman Anwar heroics

Shaiman Anwar on his way to his 148 although his heroics with the bat were not enough to prevent defeat for the UAE. Courtesy: Emirates Cricket Board

ABU DHABI // Aaqib Javed, the UAE coach, pointed to the first day’s batting collapse as the reason for their four-wicket defeat to the Netherlands in the four-day ICC Intercontinental Cup on Saturday.

The UAE had their backs to the wall from Day 1 after they were bowled out for 164. They fared better to post 276 in the second innings, mainly with the contribution of Shaiman Anwar who hit 148 and shared a 144-run partnership with Saqlian Haider (49) for the sixth wicket.

That left Netherlands with a victory target of 125 that they knocked off for the loss of six wickets to move to the top of the Intercontinental Cup standings.

“It was always a struggle when we were bowled out for 164 in the first inning,” Aaqib said.

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“Had we scored 250 or around it we could have done much better in this game. We can still take some positives from this game with Shaiman’s knock and then being able to post a decent second innings total and take six wickets when the Netherlands batted second time.”

Aaqib had as many as seven players making their first class debuts and insisted they need to be given time to adjust.

“We can keep changing players at every four-day game, instead we need to give them more opportunities to develop them,” he said.

Peter Borren, the Netherlands captain, praised Shaiman’s endeavours with the bat.

“This game was almost finished [when the UAE were left struggling at 80 for five] but then Shaiman batted beautifully, which is something that our guys can also learn from.”

The UAE meet the Netherlands in the two 50 over-a-side ICC World Cricket League matches on Wednesday and Friday.