For the first time in 9,729 days, UAE are able to savour the taste of victory in a World Cup.
The last – and, until this point, only – time they had managed it, against the Netherlands in 1996, was around the time DVDs were first released.
It was two years before the invention of Google. And a quarter of the UAE’s squad for this T20 World Cup in Australia were not yet born.
The T20 format itself was still some years away from being played at the professional level.
And now, here they are. Victors over Namibia by seven runs in Geelong. Their first win in six attempts in T20 World Cups, between 2014 and this one, and second in the four World Cups they have been to in all.
It was too little, too late in terms of affecting their chances of advancing in this competition. Listless displays against the Netherlands and Sri Lanka earlier in week had already seen to that.
In truth, they were playing the role of party-poopers at Kardinia Park, harpooning the hopes of a Namibia side who had done so much to colour this competition with their opening day shock against Sri Lanka.
The two sides have been regular combatants over the past decade, with UAE generally enjoying the better of the rivalry.
Ahead of the game, Gerhard Erasmus, Namibia’s captain, pointed out that the UAE’s side was much changed from the one they were last faced with.
That was even before the XI was announced for this game. It had four changes, including a recall for Ahmed Raza, the former captain and the only player in the UAE squad with previous experience of World Cups.
His replacement as captain, CP Rizwan, had scored less runs (three) than he had played matches (six) on tour so far. The new leader has appeared to have the weight of the world on his shoulders for much of it, given UAE’s struggles.
Yet, with his side having nothing more to lose, he showed what he has to offer with the bat at the last opportunity he got.
After coming to the wicket with the UAE dawdling on 39-1 in the ninth over, he first played for Muhammad Waseem.
The opener, on whom so much if their batting game plan is founded, hit three large sixes as he posted the UAE’s first half-century in the competition.
Waseem fell for 50 at the end of the 16th over, and Alishan Sharafu fell two overs later, pitting Rizwan with Basil Hameed.
The Keralite duo have shared a number of vital partnerships for the national team in the recent past, and they did so again to lift their side to a competitive total for the first time in the tournament.
In the 18 balls they were together, they put on 35. Hameed’s contribution of 25 from 14 balls included both improvisation, which saw him scoop a four over the wicketkeeper Zane Green’s head, as well as power. The second of his two sixes was massive.
Rizwan, for his part, ended unbeaten on 43 from 29 balls as UAE signed for 143-3 from their 20 overs.
Hameed carried the impetus from his cameo with the bat into his bowling. He took two for 17 from three overs of off-spin, all bowled in the Powerplay.
UAE had the game in their grasp by the time Zane Green was seventh out with the score on 69, with just two balls left in the 13th over at the stage.
It was at that point that David Wiese found an able ally in the form of quick bowler Ruben Trumpelmann. Their alliance raced to 50 in just 32 deliveries.
With two overs to go Namibia required 20, with Wiese on strike having just brought up his own 50 in 31 balls.
Zahoor Khan, with characteristic excellence, went for just six, leaving Waseem to defend 14 off the final six deliveries.
He might have felt he owed his side. Waseem had dropped a difficult caught and bowled chance when Wiese was on 33 and the score on 11-7.
They took four from the first three balls. Wiese lined up a straight hit for six off the fourth, but it was coolly hauled in on the boundary rope by Alishan Sharafu. Two balls later, UAE clinched a historic win.
