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What a game. What a finish. The UAE started slowly but finished with a massive bang thanks to the magnificent batting of Shaiman Anwar, who made the UAE’s first World Cup century. He could consider himself unlucky not to be awarded the man of the match.
Javed fought his heart out with bat and ball and helped set up a very solid total of 278 with some clean hitting. Amjad Ali and Khurram Khan kept the game alive while wickets fell quickly early.
Paul Stirling was fantastic with the ball (2/27 off 10 overs) but fell quickly in their chase. Joyce and Porterfield made inroads before the wheel turned again and left them reeling at 5/171 with just over 11 overs remaining. Kevin O’Brien’s 50 off 25 provided the speed while Gary Wilson’s 80 off 69 held the whole innings together when they needed someone to stand up. The UAE had stifled Ireland with Guruge’s opening spell and spin from both ends courtesy of Tauqir and Mustafa but they just fell short. The drop of Kevin O’Brien on the boundary along with the missed run-outs will be thoughts that haunt the UAE players as they look back at the match.
Ireland fight on to look for a World Cup Quarter-Final berth while the UAE showed they are not to be taken lightly despite their status coming in. Most importantly it was a fantastic contest, possibly the best of the tournament and an absolute treat for the neutral viewer. Thank you for reading the Roar’s live blog!
Mohammad Tauqir, UAE captain: “All the credit goes to Shaiman, he played a brilliant innings. We know he’s a good batsman and he proved it today. In the later half of the innings there was some dew and the ball became slightly wet, it didn’t help the seamers. It was a good batting wicket and it went right to the wire”
William Porterfield, Ireland captain: “Closer than you would have wanted, but yeah. Wickets in hand is always a hard thing but it’s a key thing in this format. The confidence is high in the squad, nice to get the win here again but we’ve just got to keep putting in performances. We took wickets up front with the ball and the lads got us home from 30 overs in with the bat”
Ireland will be looking to notch up another victory when they face-off against the UAE today at the Gabba. You can follow live scores and a blog of the match from 2:30pm (AEDT) and share your thoughts in the comments below.
A big nation takes on a little guy – only this time both sides happen to be little guys in the grander scheme. Ireland are undoubtedly the most accomplished of the Associate nations to be competing at this tournament and will be looking to build upon their stunning win against the West Indies in their first match.
The UAE – on the other hand – are battling claims of possibly being the weakest team to participate in the tournament. They showed a strong resistance to this notion in their first game against Zimbabwe when they pushed the latter close to the very end with a strong batting performance combined with some tricky bowling.
One would expect Ireland to take a simple yet most definitely required victory in the match while the UAE still look for their first win in their second World Cup appearance. But in unfamiliar conditions on the bouncy and pacey GABBA surface may well throw unforseen spanners into the works.
Ireland need to show their relative strength and work towards what would be an excellent result of a quarter-final berth by taking this game. But pressure is something that side wouldn’t necessarily be used to – favouritism even less so.
Their captain William Porterfield didn’t star in the first match but has done so off the field with his words of strength for an oft overlooked side. Their spin division choked the West Indies in their first game and they’ll be looking to do so again, supported by the pace battery. Seam bowlers Craig Young and the experienced Alex Cusack are possible inclusions but one would expect Ireland to go in unchanged after a strong win.
The UAE may well also go in unchanged after defying expectation with their peformance, even if it came in a losing cause.
There’s a sense of the unknown coming into this match due to the surface being alien as well as the ground being new, but even moreso in the fact that these sides have never met in an official ODI capacity in the past.
The challenge will be on the sides to at least repeat and hopefully better their performances in their first time on the pitch this tournament. With both having only one match played under their belt there is no doubting that there is a lot to lose for teams like these looking to lay a claim.
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