Today's Edition
UAE women’s cricket team can make a comeback at Asia Cup: former coach
KUUMAR SHYAM (ABU DHABI)
The UAE women’s cricket team may have fumbled in their ICC women’s T20 Asia Cup opener in Dubai against defending champions Sri Lanka, but former coach Ahmed Raza is confident the host team can make a comeback.
Raza said Esha Oza and her teammates must show better staying power at the wicket and make use of the home conditions, just like Sri Lanka did in reading the pitch well.
The UAE were bowled out for 79 on Saturday night with Sri Lanka employing their pacers and spinners with smartly on a two-paced wicket.
Raza, a spinner himself and coach of the UAE team until June, said: “This was only the third time they got to play a team like Sri Lanka. Their confidence may have taken a hit, but they (the UAE) have no option but to back their skills,” Raza said.
The hosts also have five-day break before their next match against Indonesia who lost to Bangladesh in the other Group B game.
The UAE will first have to ward off Indonesia’s challenge on Friday, before they take on Bangladesh in what will decide which of the two teams from the group will proceed to the semi-finals.
In Saturday’s match against the UAE, Sri Lanka exploited the late turn the wicket offered the islanders. “In the first 10 overs, the pacers got good purchase. And we are happy to have bowlers such as Mithali Ayodhya and Chethana Vimukthi,” said captain Chamber Athapaththu. The next 10 overs assisted the spinners, she said.
