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30 November 2009
In a one-sided semifinal played at Al Dhaid Cricket Village, UAE overcame their close one-wicket loss to Afghanistan on Saturday, as they trounced Oman by six wickets in a low-scoring match.
Group B toppers Oman’s decision to bat first after winning the toss backfired as they came up with the worst performance so far.
Exceptional bowling from Moiz Shahid and Qasim Zubair ensured that Oman’s top order wobbled as they were eventually bundled out for a paltry 50 in 15 overs.
While the young medium pacer Shahid accounted for five wickets — the first five-for in the tournament, Zubair bagged two. Arfan Haider continued the good work as he grabbed two wickets to finish off the tail without conceding a single run in his only over.
UAE, despite losing early wickets, took just over eight overs to achieve the target.
A delighted skipper Khurram Khan said that it was a great feeling to be in the final. “Our boys did a great job. We dominated the match from the start and are happy with the result.
“Now we have to focus on the final. We have seen our mistakes and we are working on it and we will come back stronger,” he said.
Praising the young Shahid Moiz for his brilliant bowling performance, the skipper said: “He was a delight to watch. This is his only first international tournament and he has been performing exceptionally well. He has been consistently contributing to the success of the team.”
In the other semifinal played at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Afghanistan too had an easy outing as they scored an eight-wicket win over Kuwait.
Batting first, thanks to Hisham Mirza’s 33, Kuwait managed to score 115 in 18.1 overs. H Hassan was the pick of the bowlers for Afghanistan who scalped three wickets while S Zadran, S Shinwari and MN Eisakhil picked up two wickets each.
The target was too less for a confident Afghanistan who overhauled the target in 16.4 overs losing only two wickets. Opener N K Mangal was unbeaten on 51 while M S Mohammad chipped in with 45. Afghanistan coach Kabir Khan said that it was amazing to be unbeaten in this tournament so far but sounded a word of caution against complacency. “It is a good feeling for the team to be winning all the matches, but again it can be scary as well. We don’t want anything to go wrong on the final day,”
“Though we won the previous match against them, they had dominated most of the session. So we will look into that closely and stick to the basics against the UAE in the final,” he added.
Brief scores: Oman: 50 all out in 15 overs (Moiz Shahid 5/ 20, Qasim Zubair 2/14, Arfan Haider 2/0) lost to UAE: 51 for 4 in 8.1 overs (Arfan Haider 19; Awal Khan 2/32).
Kuwait: 115 all out in 18.1 overs (Hisham Mirza 33; H Hassan 3/23, S Zadran 2/22, S Shinwari 2/9, MN Eisakhil 2/9) lost to Afghanistan: 116 for 2 in 16.4 overs (N K Mangal 51 n.o, M S Mohammad 45; MA Ahmed 2/25).
5/6th playoff: Singapore: 89 all out in 19.4 overs (S K Janjua 25; B Kumar Das 3/21, Sangam Reemi 3/19) lost to Nepal: 90 for 1 in 14.2 overs (D Chaudhary 49 n.o, N B B Ayer 32 n.o)
7/8th playoff: Malaysia: 201 for 7 in 20 overs (Damith Warusavithana 62, Ahmed Faiz 22, Suhan Kumar 53, Aminudin Ramly 26; Shafiq Ahmed 3/28, Rizwan Manzoor 2/20) beat Saudi Arabia: Hammad Saeed 21, Kashif Meher 36, Rizwan Mazoor 32, Mohammad Nadeem 36; Eszrafiq Azis 2/16, Nik Arifin 3/34).
9/10th playoff: Hong Kong: 148 for 9 in 20 overs (Khalid Butt 64 n.o; Sajjad Ahmed 3/27, Syed Abbas 3/34) lost to Qatar: 149 for 3 in 16.3 overs (Umer Taj 50, Tamour Sajjad 35, Raheel Sheikh 20 n.o, Sajjad Ahmed 22 n.o; Moner Ahmed 2/24).
11/12th playoff: Bahrain: 196 for 4 in 20 overs (Ashraf Mughal 86, Yasir Iftikhar 30 retd hurt, Aamar Shahzad 25, Haroon Naseer 20) beat China: 103 for 3 in 20 overs (Jiang Shuyao 28 n.o, Song Yangyang 34).
