Dubai: A star-studded South Australia, made up of a number of international players, defeated the UAE by 103 runs in the International Cricket Council (ICC) High Performance Programme (HPP) match for the four qualifiers of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 to be held in Australia and New Zealand.
Put into bat by the UAE, South Australia posted 271 for eight and bowled out UAE for 168 runs at the Marrara Cricket Ground in Darwin.
Led by South African all-rounder Johan Botha, South Australia overcame a shaky start when they lost four wickets for 82 runs. UAE’s medium pacer Mohammad Naveed had Australian international and opener Mark Cosgrove caught behind by wicketkeeper Swapnil Patil for a duck off the first ball of the match.
Tom Cooper, who had played 23 One Day Internationals for Netherlands, too followed caught behind off Amjad Javed for 16. Mohammad Shahzad dismissed Alex Ross for four and Jake Lehmann for 14 to push South Australia to 82 for 4 in 14.2 overs.
Skipper Botha joined 20-year-old Travis Head, one of Australia’s most promising players and had last month hit a century and a half-century against South Africa A team. Head cracked 67 runs off 71 balls with six boundaries and two sixes.
UAE left-arm spinner Fayyaz Ahmad took the prize wicket of Botha for 37. Speaking to Gulf News from Darwin after giving away only 34 runs from his eight overs, Ahmad said: “It was great learning experience against a very professional side like South Australia.
“I bowled during power play and got some assistance from the wicket. I managed to understand how their batsmen try to score and picked up ways to stop them from scoring runs. This tour and matches here will help us boost our confidence.”
After Botha fell, wicketkeeper Tim Ludeman (69) and Alex Gregory (30) put on 72 runs for the seventh wicket to swell the total.
To score at a run rate of 5.42 against a powerful South Australian bowling attack led by Australian internationals Kane Richardson and Botha wasn’t easy. UAE’s consistent opener Amjad Ali got trapped leg before by Australian A team pacer Chadd Sayers for 4.
Andri Berenger and opener Mohammad Shahzad put on a fighting 62-run partnership for the second wicket, before Gregory dismissed Shahzad for 12. Richardson took the prize wickets of UAE skipper Khurram Khan for 13 and Swapnil Patil for 3. Medium pacer Daniel Worrall clean bowled Shaimon Anwar for one and UAE quickly slipped to 99 for 8.
Saqib Ali refused to give up and fought valiantly with the help of last two batsmen Salman Haider and Mohammad Naveed. He put on 44 runs for the ninth wicket with Haider (16) while last man Naveed scored 19 runs to prolong the innings to 45 overs. Ali remained unbeaten with 31 runs with four boundaries.
