UAE still have a lot to play for, says Brown
dubai — The UAE didn’t quite have the most ideal of starts to their tour of Zimbabwe, going down to the hosts in the first of four One Day Internationals (ODI) in Harare on Wednesday.
The UAE, who are playing their first-ever bilateral ODI series against a Full Member Nation, lost by seven wickets.
The UAE were hampered by the conditions as well as luck when it came to the toss. That meant Zimbabwe ran out comfortable winners, with 161 deliveries remaining.
Rain had preceded the game with the surface under covers for most part and the UAE couldn’t quite come to grips with the conditions after being asked to have first go by Zimbabwe captain Peter Moor.
And some good bowling by pacers Tendai Chatara (3-25), Kyle Jarvis (2-11) and Donald Tiripano (2-18) as well as leg spinner Brandon Mavuta (2-30) saw the UAE manage to muster 110 in 44.5 overs, with Mohammad Boota showing defiance with a toiling 36.
It was too low a score to defend as Zimbabwe got home in 23.1 overs, with southpaw Craig Ervine scoring his 13th half-century. Opener Regis Chakabva made a patient 38.
UAE coach Dougie Brown said it wasn’t the end of the world and they still have a lot to play for.
“It is not the end of the world. There are four games and this is the first one of four,” Brown told the Khaleej Times from Harare.
“We have actually played some pretty good cricket. We beat a Zimbabwe Chairman’s XI couple of days ago with our batters scoring some really good runs,” he added.
Brown said that his lads were faced with different conditions and the loss of the toss also didn’t help.
“It was tricky upfront this morning (Wednesday). The pitch had been under covers for over 24 hours because it rained very heavily yesterday (Tuesday). We unfortunately lost the toss. It was a very important toss and Zimbabwe bowled exceptionally well. They gave us absolutely no freebies, fielded well and over the course of the day, the pitch did get much, much easier. That said, with 110 on the board, you have got to make inroads early. We got one wicket but we didn’t quite manage to get anymore,” said the former England and Scotland international.
The second One Day International will be played on Friday.