Dubai: UAE skipper Rohan Mustafa has assured that his team will play hard against Hong Kong to win the Asia Cup qualifier final on Thursday. One more win and they will get to play against Asian giants India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup - commencing from September 15 at the Dubai International stadium.
Speaking to Gulf News after guiding UAE to an impressive 13-run win over Oman at the Bayuemas Oval ground in Malaysia to finish on top of the table, Mustafa said: “It was a nice performance from the whole team against Oman. We will now take on Hong Kong in the final and come down hard on them and win the tournament.”
Mustafa lead from the front and top scored with a fighting 71 to help UAE post 208 for eight in 50 overs and bagged two wickets to restrict Malaysia to 195 in 47.2 overs. He was backed by Mohammad Naveed (2 for 51) and Amir Hayat (2 for 48).
Mustafa, who received the Man of the Match award for his allround show, said: “Our team total was not very impressive but we managed to bowl Oman out for less than 200 runs. It was a great performance from our bowlers as the wicket was good for batting and it was not a difficult target to reach. We will now come hard against Hong Kong as we lost against them in our previous match. We consider that day as a bad day for us. We will give our best and try and win the final.”
Oman won the toss but elected to field first. UAE lost opener Chirag Suri for 10 while the other opener Ashfaq Ahmad got run out for 24. Rameez Shahzad fell leg before to ff spinner Aqib Illyas for 17 but Mustafa took control and kept the scoreboard moving. Though wickets kept falling at the other end Mustafa went on to hit 71 runs off 106 balls with eight boundaries and a six. Wicketkeeper Abdul Shakoor hit an timely unbeaten 21 runs.
Chasing the total, Oman lost their opener Jatinder Singh who got bowled by Naveed for 10. Illyas and Vaibhav Wategaonkar took the score to 61 when left arm spinner Ahmad Raza provide the break through by having Illyas caught and bowled for 45. Mustafa had Wategaonkar too caught and bowled for 17. Mustafa then went on to have Oman captain Zeeshan Maqsood too caught and bowled for 16 to put UAE on the path to victory.
