Tuesday, Feb 25, 2014

Abu Dhabi: The UAE lost to New Zealand in the second plate semi-final of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Under-19 Cricket World Cup after a brave fight at the Shaikh Zayed Stadium on Tuesday.

Despite being restricted to 140, UAE fought back to take New Zealand’s five wickets before being defeated.

For New Zealand, Ken McClure cracked an unbeaten 62 to ensure their victory after the UAE took their first four wickets for 96 runs.

Left-arm spinner Justin James excelled by taking two wickets and giving away just 38 runs from his ten overs.

Speaking to Gulf News, UAE skipper Rohit Singh said: “We could have performed better, but we are happy that we could put up a fight against Test-playing nations such as New Zealand and Sri Lanka. We have learned a lot from this World Cup. We are now looking forward to our next match against Zimbabwe, whom we beat in the warm-up tie. Having beaten Scotland, it would be nice if we could end up beating Zimbabwe too.”

UAE openers Shiv Mehra and Dan D’Souza withstood New Zealand’s pace attack, which is among the best in the Under-19 World Cup, to put on 26 runs.

Mehra, after hitting three boundaries, got clean bowled by Kyle Jamieson for 14. Six runs later, D’Souza followed suit to become Jack Hunter’s victim.

Skipper Singh and Shivank Vijayakumar reached double figures, but left-arm spinner Jeremy Benton ended their innings — trapped Singh for 10, while Vijayakumar was caught behind for 15.

Though in-form Chirag Suri got bowled by Dane Watson for one run, Dhruv Praveen and Moaaz Qazi held on.

Praveen got run out for 15, while Qazi went on to top-score with 21 runs before being caught and bowled by off-spinner Josh Finnie.

UAE’s tail-enders also held on with Omar Mohammad scoring 19 and Pankaj Prakash remaining unbeaten on 12.

Chasing the moderate total, UAE medium pacer Pankaj Prakash dismissed opener Henry Collier for 9. James had New Zealand’s consistent opener Raki Weerasundara caught and bowled for 30, while Qazi took the prize wicket of New Zealand skipper Robert O’Donnell for 4.

James trapped Finnie leg before for 5. McClure, along with Leo Carter (12,) took their team closer to victory before Sajid Khan dismissed Carter.

In the other match, West Indies’ scored a thrilling nine-run win over Afghanistan in the super league fifth-place play-off.

West Indies posted 215 runs, thanks mainly through Fabian Allen’s 92. Afghanistan chased the total through two half centuries from Shahidullah Kamal (51) and Hashmatullah Shaidi’s unbeaten 52 but fell short of the target.

By K.R. Nayar Chief Cricket Writer

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