DUBAI // After Ahmed Raza, the UAE spin bowler, leaned on a classical straight drive to clinch a one-wicket win for his side over Namibia, he made a joke of his position at No 11 in the team's batting order.
Having put on an unbroken 33 for the final wicket with his captain, Khurram Khan, to see the UAE home, Raza might be agitating for a move up the list in today's World Cricket League Division Two pool match with Papua New Guinea.
He is unlikely to make much progress. Just above him in the order is Mohammed Taquir, the vice-captain and one of the sides leading all-rounders, while at No 9 is Amjad Javed, who has scored centuries opening for the national team in the past.
All of which made it all the more surprising how difficult the UAE found it to rein in Namibia's apparently meagre target of 177 for victory in the opening WCL match at Dubai Sports City.
However, Kabir Khan, the UAE coach, believes the tense victory is a sign of strength under pressure, a trait which has not always been associated with UAE sides of the past. "That shows the character of the boys, and how big their heart is now," Kabir, the former Pakistan Test bowler, said.
"We have been working on that mentally and physically, trying to get them used to pressure.
"We give them targets they have to hit against their own bowlers, and we make them go through that pressure again and again. Now they have been though it. I don't recall UAE sides winning matches like this in the past. It shows they are prepared for it now."
The UAE were again reliant on their evergreen captain, Khurram, to see them over the line.
In the severe heat of early summer, he battled cramp as well as a potent Namibia seam attack as he made his crucial half-century.
These two sides are evenly-matched and are expected to face a rematch in the final of this week-long, 50-over competition.
They know each other well from the recent past, and Khurram has bittersweet memory of matches against Namibia.
He scored a hundred against this side in the final game of the ICC World Cup Qualifier in South Africa in 2009, after both sides had already missed their chance of playing at the subcontinental showpiece.
Familiarity seems to have bred a little contempt between the two sides, judging by the fraught ending to the game, when the umpires had to intervene to cool fraying tempers.
Arshad Ali, the UAE batsman, was reprimanded and warned for his future conduct for breaching the ICC Code of Conduct.
"In this group we seem to see each other as the main competition," Craig Williams, the Namibia captain, said.
The UAE's opponents today, PNG, beat Bermuda by 43 runs in their opening game yesterday. Namibia play Uganda, who lost to Hong Kong by 26 runs.
