Sharjah: UAE skipper Khurram Khan blamed the surfeit of Twenty20 matches in domestic cricket for his team's seven wicket defeat to Scotland in the International Cricket Council (ICC) Intercontinental Cup match at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium yesterday.
Though UAE were bowled out for a paltry 100 runs in the first innings, they fought back in their second innings to score 318 runs. With only a slender lead, Scotland who had posted 305 runs in their first innings, raced to victory losing just three wickets.
"We paid the prize for our batting collapse in the first innings on a very good batting wicket," UAE skipper Khurram Khan told Gulf News.
Khan feels that electing to bat first after winning the toss was not a bad decision.
"Our batsmen got out to Twenty20 shots. It was a superb batting wicket and our batsmen should have settled down and played their shots. After we got all out for such a small score and then yielding over 200 runs lead, it was tough to catch up," he added. "Our batsmen are now regularly playing only Twenty20 matches and are finding it difficult to quickly adapt to four-day matches.
"Even if it is a good batting wicket, if the batsmen refuses to stay at the wicket and build huge partnerships, it will be tough to get a big score. We now fly to Holland for our next match and we need to adapt to four-day matches,"
Starting the final day's action from the overnight score of 286 for 7, UAE were bowled out for 318 runs.
Scotland's first innings centurian Richie Berrington and Majid Haq steered their team to victory through an unbeaten 67 runs partnership for the fourth wicket.
Scores
UAE first innings 100. Scotland first innings 305 in 117.5 overs UAE second innings 318 in 139.2 overs (Faizan Asif 46, Arshad Ali 71, Ahmad Raza 21, Saqib Ali 76, Khurram Khan 39, Gordon Goudie 3 for 63, Majid Haq 3 for 72, Safyaan Sharif 2 for 61). Scotland second innings: 117 for 3 in 37.2 overs (Majid Haq 39no, Richie Berrington 42no).
