Muhammad Waseem was taking the positives from the UAE's 27-run defeat to Bangladesh on Saturday, with only a short turnaround to the second of two T20I’s at the Sharjah Stadium.
The UAE captain slammed a 39-ball 54, while Rahul Chopra hit 35 off 22 and Asif Khan 42 off 21. That got them to 131 for four in 13.1 overs before the visitors clawed their way back to claim the last six batters for just 30 as the home side were dismissed for 164 while chasing 191.
“I think we gave away 25-30 extra runs on the field but we still fought back with some good batting from myself, Rahul and Asif to give them a good game,” said Waseem with the teams set to square off again in Sharjah on Monday.
“Had there been more contributions from the rest of the batting we could have gone even closer. We can take a lot of positives forward from this game and we’ll not make it easy for them when we meet again.”
One knock that stood out for Bangladesh was a maiden T20I century from opener Parvez Hossain Emon. He smashed nine sixes and five fours in a blistering 54-ball exact 100.
His century was only the second by a Bangladeshi in T20Is after Tamim Iqbal had scored an unbeaten 103 against Oman in the 2016 T20 World Cup.
Parvez also set the Bangladesh record for most sixes in a T20I innings, hitting nine, beating Rishad Hossain's seven against Sri Lanka last year.
“To score a maiden century was special for me, so I'm happy for that and my team,” Parvez said.
“I just do normal things and I just work hard and trying to always do my best for my team. It indeed was a good day for me and hopefully take this momentum forward into the next game.”
Parvez brought up his maiden T20I half century with an off drive to the long off fence off Haider Ali in 27 balls after he smashed seamer Sanchit Sharma for three sixes and a four in the previous over. He reached his century with a single off Matiullah Khan off 53 deliveries.
Waseem acknowledged that the knock from Parvez took the game away from the UAE despite a superb spell from left arm seamer Muhammad Jawadullah, who returned four for 21 from his four overs in Bangladesh’s total of 197 for seven.
“Parvez’s knock was the difference at the end. He was pretty outstanding on the night,” Waseem added.
“Jawad bowled really well but as we know Bangladesh is a Test playing nation and strong opponents. So we are realistic of the strengths but we’ll not make it easy for them when we meet them again.”
The UAE’s chase petered out late on. Waseem, who hit seven fours and a couple of maximums, fell in the 12th over with the score at 103.
Asif took the challenge by clubbing some massive sixes, giving Bangladesh a scare. He carted Mahedi Hasan for three sixes down the ground in the 13th over. In all, Asif took the spinner for 23 off five balls.
However, wickets kept falling at the other end. Chopra and Dhruv Parashar fell in successive overs, even as Asif continued to go big, hitting Hasan Mahmud for a straight six and a four in the 17th over.
Sanchit Sharma and Muhammad Zuhaib fell in quick succession as well before Asif was the eighth UAE batter to be dismissed in the penultimate over as their chase fell short.
