Ahmed Raza, the coach, is demanding ruthlessness from the UAE women’s side at the GCC T20 Championship in Muscat.
The national team are the top-ranked side in the regional competition. They arrived in Oman on the back of an uplifting performance at the Emerging Nations trophy in Bangkok.
Playing against seven of the other leading non-Test nations in the world, the UAE finished second in that event.
They finished level on points with champions Thailand, and only missed out on winning it by a net run rate differential of 0.084.
“I think it's evident the strides we are making as a team, especially in a tournament like that, where it's the top eight associate countries of the world,” Raza said.
“Going into the tournament, we were fifth in the seedings, so we had four teams better ranked than us.
“Eventually finishing in second position was a bitter pill to swallow that we missed out by probably just one over.
“If Thailand didn't chase [the win in their final match against Scotland] in 12 overs, we would have been declared the winners.”
Raza said the performance in Thailand was instructive for his side as they bid to push higher from No 16 in the world rankings.
“If we want to become the best Associate team in the world, that's the standard we need to match, and we need to do it consistently,” Raza said.
“This tournament provided us with some obviously great positives, but also things where we need to improve on if we want to get to where we want to be.
“It wasn't a pathway tournament where qualification was at stake. For us, it was about going out there and, walking into the tournament as fifth seed, we wanted to finish on top. But second was a great achievement as well.”
The next assignment for the UAE is one where regional pride is at stake. The team have dominated the tournament in the past, and the next highest-ranked side in the competition – hosts Oman – are 27 places below them.
“We need to be ruthless and we need to play at our level,” Raza said.
“It doesn't matter whether we play a team which is better ranked than us or lower than us.
"I think we need to keep our standards high and stay humble, but be ruthless.
“I think that's going to be the message for this tournament as well; that we will stay humble, we'll stay balanced, but we'll be ruthless on the field.”
The return to Muscat will revive good memories for Esha Oza. The UAE captain hit 156 not out at the Oman Cricket Academy in 2022, which remains the third-highest score is the history of women’s T20 internationals.
Oza was named player of the tournament at the Emerging Nations competition for her exploits with bat and ball. She was also nominated for the ICC player of the month award on the basis of her excellence in Thailand.
“Women’s cricket in general is moving right now,” Oza said.
“I think the way women's cricket is being played, it's changed massively over the past few years, and I think that's what we're trying to develop the team as a UAE women's team as well. Slowly and steadily, we're getting there.”
