Ahead of their return to one-day international cricket, the UAE coach Lalchand Rajput said he was confident his side would be fit enough to cope with the rigours of the 50-over game.
Whether they are or not remains to be seen. Their first fixture in six months in the Cricket World Cup League 2 only lasted around the same length of time as a T20 match anyway, so comprehensively thrashed were they.
The United States needed a mere three hours and 44 minutes to complete their demolition job on the national team at the United Cricket Club Ground in Namibia.
First, they bowled the UAE out for a pitiful total of 106. The batters only managed to last for 31.2 overs at a ground that is characteristically a good one for batting. It was the eighth time in their past 11 innings in the ODI format that the UAE have failed to make it to 200.
It was immediately apparent that there were no demons in the wicket to excuse the UAE batters when the US took the first over of the reply, bowled by Junaid Siddique, for 18.
Andries Gous, the free-scoring opener who caught the eye for the US at their home T20 World Cup earlier this year, shone on his ODI debut.
He raced to 50 in just 37 balls in the run chase, including fours off the first four balls he faced from Siddique, and hurried his side through to a 10-wicket win with a ball left in the 16th over.
The loss is the latest in a long run of woe the UAE have suffered in the 50-over game. They have now played four games in the new cycle of the CWCL2, which is part of the qualification pathway for the next ODI World Cup, and lost all of them.
They had six changes to their XI for their first ODI since they were outplayed by Scotland and Canada in Dubai in March, yet there was no sign of improvement.
In particular, Vriitya Aravind is conspicuous from the batting line up. The 22-year-old batter was one of the success stories of the UAE’s previous campaign in this competition, and was the only one of their batters to registered 1,000 runs in it.
He also made 450 runs in eight matches for the UAE’s A team in series in Oman then Namibia in the lead up to this series, yet was still overlooked for selection.
In fact, none of the UAE's three top scorers in the CWCL2 last time around are in the squad for this tri-series, which also includes hosts Namibia.
Chirag Suri opted to step away from cricket after becoming disaffected with the game, while CP Rizwan was overlooked for the tour, despite a productive summer playing club cricket in the UK.
The national team will be straight back into action against Namibia on Friday and Muhammad Waseem, the captain, is demanding a better showing from his batters.
“We have to bat well,” Waseem said. “The bowlers tried their best, but Gous and [Patel] played well, although to be honest we didn’t bat well. We have to score a minimum of 260 to 270 on a pitch like this.”
For all the UAE’s failings, the comprehensive success was the latest evidence of progress from the US.
Monank Patel’s side captured the attention of the cricket world when they disposed of Pakistan on their way to the second phase of the T20 World Cup in the US and the Caribbean earlier this year.
The trouncing of the UAE was their second win in the space of three days at the start of the tri-series in Windhoek, after they had beaten Namibia by six wickets in the opener.
Jesse Singh was the pick of their bowlers, as he took 4-18 during the UAE’s capitulation.
“I’m very satisfied with how we played,” Monank said. “Winning the toss, I thought our bowlers set up the momentum really well and used the new ball really well.
“[Bowling the UAE out for] 106, we would have taken that any day. Then after that we wanted the top three batters to finish the game, and the way the openers batted, credit to them.”
