UAE to take on Zimbabwe A
dubai — The UAE will lock horns with the Zimbabwe A squad on Thursday in the first match of the five One-Day series in Dubai.
Four matches will be played at the ICC Academy Oval and one at the iconic Dubai International Stadium. Two of the games will be day-night matches.
Speaking to the media on the eve of the match, UAE coach Dougie Brown said: “From the UAE’s perspective we would like to welcome the Zimbabwe team for coming over to play five, what we consider to be, very important games for us.
“The UAE cricket is going through an interesting period. We played some very good cricket the last few months — in Holland and Namibia — and we look forward to testing our strengths against what we consider a very strong Zimbabwe A side,” added the former Scottish cricketer.
“We have a squad of 20 players and we are going to give each player a chance over the course of the five-match series. We have added players from outside the fully contracted squad and the retainer squad so they are excited.
“It is going to be a huge challenge taking on Zimbabwe as they have some players who have played more than 100 ODI matches, but I am confident we will have a good account of our side.”
A few days ago the UAE colts clinched the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) U-19 Western Region tournament title by defeating Kuwait in the final in Malaysia. With this win, they qualified for the ACC Under-19 Youth Asia Cup scheduled from Nov. 10.
Throwing light on UAE’s win, Brown said: “There has been some unbelievable performances from the U-19 boys and we as a team need to recognise performances — not age — age is just a number, so at some stage we will need to get some young players into the system,” he concluded.