UAE snag second win at Cricket World Cup Qualifiers

Behind 91 from Amjad Ali and 88 from Khurram Khan, the UAE made 286 for 6 on Wednesday and registered an 80-run victory over the Canadians, making them two for two at the World Cup qualifying.

Khurram Khan scored 88 runs and took two wickets for the UAE on Wednesday. Satish Kumar / The National

The UAE made it two wins in two tries at the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifiers on Wednesday. They followed up their 100-run knocking of Nepal on Monday with another convincing victory in their second match at the qualifying tournament, this time by 80 runs over Canada.

Amjad Ali, posting 91 off 118 balls, and captain Khurram Khan, going for 88 off just 84 balls, carried the Emirates to 286 for 6. Swapnil Patil added 36 and Amjad Javed chipped in 23. Shaiman Anwar, who made a century in the match against Nepal, went for just a single run from two balls on Wednesday.

Within the first five overs, UAE’s bowling attack took Canada’s first three wickets for just nine runs. Mohammad Naveed bowled out Nitish Kumar on the 15th ball of the match, and Kumar’s opening partner Ruvindu Gunasekera soon followed, getting caught out by Rohan Mustafa from a Manjula Guruge delivery on the last ball of the next over.

Naveed claimed his second wicket two balls later when Usman Limbada was caught by Patil.

Canada’s Jimmy Hansra made a stand after that, top-scoring for the match with an unbeaten 100 from 119 balls, but once his 89-run fourth-wicket stand with Raza-ur-Rehman (43) was broken, they had little chance of catching UAE. Khan added to his 88 with a pair of wickets, bowling out Rehman and Trevin Bastiampillai (17), who followed him.

Mustafa bowled out Hamza Tariq (20) and Rehman and Junaid Siddique brought Canada to their final 206 for 6 total.

Kamran Shazad who, like Anwar, shined in the opener, failed to take a wicket against the Canadians, serving up 40 runs in seven overs.

Guruge, in 10 overs, allowed just 29 runs for a 2.90 economy rate. Javed, despite not taking a wicket, held Canada to just 22 runs in seven overs (3.14).

UAE will take on Scotland on Sunday in their next match.

In Wednesday’s other qualifier, Namibia won their opener by 91 runs over the Netherlands. The Dutch now have one win and one loss.

Namibia went for 253 for 6, with Gerrie Snymar top-scoring at 76 from 74 balls. Christi Viljoen added 46 from 47.

The Netherlands’ Mudassar Bukhari took three wickets and Michael Stewart took two, but the rest of the Dutch bowling attack failed to make a dent. Michael Rippon led their batting line-up with 44 from 73 balls.

Viljoen snagged four wickets for 33 and Louis Klazinga and Bernard Scholtz each took two in the victory for Namibia.