The UAE maintained their place in third in the Cricket World Cup League 2 table after winning two matches and losing two on their tour of Texas.
That was short of what Ahmed Raza, the side’s captain, has hoped for when the side set out on their 26,000km round trip last week.
Still, though, it represented quite the show of character after their were comfortably beaten in their opening two games, first by Scotland, then hosts United States.
The whistle-stop tour to the other side of the world provided some notable positives for the national team, but threw up some questions, too.
New superlatives, please
Three times in recent months, Raza has started a post-match presentation by saying about his young batting colleague, Vriitya Aravind: “I’ve run out of superlatives for him.”
This was another tour in which Aravind sealed the player of the series award with some remarkable strokeplay. Just as he did in helping UAE to T20 World Cup qualification earlier in the year.
He made a fifty and then a hundred in the two matches UAE won, and in so doing became just the third teenager to notch two ODI centuries.
He only turns 20 on Saturday. Would it be greedy to think his best could still be ahead of him?
Dynamic duo
Since February, Aravind and Chirag Suri have shared three century partnerships in ODI cricket for the UAE, against Oman, Namibia and now United States.
The 125 they shared against the home team in Texas allowed UAE to make light work of what might have been a tricky run chase.
“They complement each other,” Raza said of the top-order duo.
“They run well together, they have complementary games, and they are really good friends off the field, which I think helps.”
Bench strength
The back-to-back wins against USA and Scotland were remarkable for a couple of reasons.
First, they had been way off in the first two games. Second, they were without the unwell Junaid Siddique and Rohan Mustafa, who had succumbed to a shoulder injury sustained while fielding in the first match.
Mustafa has been a pillar of the side for years, and Siddique had established himself as the side’s pace-bowling spearhead in recent times.
And yet those who came off the bench thrived.
“The players who came in – Karthik Meiyappan, Zawar Farid, Akif Raja – they contributed so much,” Raza said.
CP’s comeback
For all the excellence of Aravind and Suri with the bat, the most consistent of UAE’s batters on tour was a player who might have been fearful for his place before the squad was announced.
CP Rizwan had endured a troubled couple of series last time out in this competition.
He had been light on runs, scored those that he did slowly, and even had his collar felt by the match referee for showing disappointment at an umpiring decision.
He proved his class in Texas, though – and much to the delight of his teammates.
He was the second-highest run-getter on tour for UAE, behind Aravind, with scores of 55, 67, 30 and 26 not out.
And his heroically odd bowling action even brought him a first international wicket, too – the prized one of Scotland’s Richie Berrington.
Given the mass bundle in the celebrations that followed, it is clear Rizwan is a highly popular member of the UAE line up.
Scheduling issues
Although they did well to turn the tide and beat two in-form sides in consecutive days at the end of the series, Raza rued the four points which got away at the start.
“That hurt us a lot,” the captain said. “It was two points to Scotland, who are above us on the points table. Winning that game would have helped.
“We have to learn from the losses. Hopefully we don’t repeat this in future when we go away.”
One way to help them would be to arrange at least one practice game before the serious business starts next time on tour, which will be against the same opposition in Scotland in August.
Flying in a couple of days before, from the height of UAE summer, will handicap the side. They deserve better than that.
