Perth: UAE skipper Mohammad Tauqir vowed his team won’t be intimidated by defending champions India when they play their World Cup match at the Waca in Perth on Saturday.
The amateur UAE side have impressed in their first two Pool B matches, narrowly losing out to both Zimbabwe and Ireland, while star-studded India have swept aside rivals Pakistan and much-fancied South Africa.
Though the result may be close to a foregone conclusion in favour of India, the spirit with which the UAE have played in this World Cup is giving them a hope of a good show.
Answering a query from Gulf News on what his team’s approach while playing the big stars of world cricket will be, Tauqir said: “We know they are big stars, but we will take this game like our previous two encounters. The intensity is going to be the same and we’ll take it just like another game and not be intimidated by names or their status.”
When Tauqir last played against India in the Asia Cup at Dambulla in 2004, he top scored for the UAE with 55 runs on his One Day International debut.
When asked how much memories of that match would motivate him, Tauqir said: “That was long ago. I would like everybody to do well against India. All the boys are looking forward to this game and hoping to do well. In the last two games we have worked hard, so everybody would like to repeat their good performance and put up a good show against India.”
Tauqir also played down the possibility of stage fright for his players, saying: “The Zimbabwe game was close and the Ireland game even closer, so we are getting closer to a win.
“We know we’re playing well. Mentally everybody is very calm. We’re not getting emotional by the situation and are taking it easy. We will stick to our basics, ensure we get it right and enjoy the game.”
When Gulf News asked Dhawan if the UAE team was an unknown one for them, and whether they had watched them play on television, he said: “I haven’t watched their videos yet, but once I get back to the hotel after our practice I’m going to watch.”
Tauqir wants his batsmen, who have been regularly scoring around 30 runs before getting out, to go on and get bigger scores against India.
“We need to turn the 30s and 40s into bigger runs like Shaiman [Anwar] has shown us in the last game. Maybe there has been some concentration lapses in the middle. But we know our middle order batsmen can play bigger innings and we had a chat about this in the dressing room.”
