BRISBANE // The UAE are learning as they go at this World Cup.
How to train like professionals on a daily basis, how to bowl at the death in big matches, how to try to close out tense games, and how to find your way from the dressing room to the middle in the labyrinthine super-stadiums of Australia.
This time around, the lesson was the same one England learnt painfully four years ago in Bangalore. Namely, do not make Ireland all-rounder Kevin O’Brien angry.
Last time it was James Anderson, the England seam bowler with more than 600 international wickets to his name, this time it was Mohammed Naveed.
The accounts clerk, who leads the bowling attack for the UAE, sent a beam-ball at O’Brien and copped a mouthful for it. As soon as he did, the UAE’s chance of a first victory at this competition were sunk.
The broad-shouldered Dubliner made 50 in 25 balls, the same strike rate – 200 – at which he struck the fastest ton in this event’s history against England in India in 2011.
He did not carry it through, but it was still the seminal innings of the game, as the Irish claimed a precious win.
It was the injection of pace Ireland’s innings needed. Gary Wilson nudged them even closer with a brilliant innings of 80, then George Dockrell, the most unlikely match-winner with the bat, smuggled them over the line with four balls and two wickets left. It was spellbinding stuff.
“I’ve batted a lot with Kev over the last 15 years, last year with Surrey and then with Ireland,” Wilson said.
“We dovetail really nicely: I poke it for one and he hits it out the ground, so it’s great.”
Defeat was heartbreaking for the UAE. As gate-crashers go, they are the most gloriously welcome kind.
The hosts of this party in New Zealand and Australia have made it pretty clear they have let them in under duress.
Their invitation to the next one has already been more or less revoked, four years in advance.
Yet despite being winless, they are the belle of the ball, Cinderellas in cricket spikes.
The sport’s governing body said sides like the UAE would not do things like this, so shut the door on them.
The UAE's players are making a nonsense of that theory, none more so than Shaiman Anwar, who followed up his half-century in the opening loss to Zimbabwe with a ton.
His celebration upon reaching three-figures was gloriously unselfconscious, as he became the first UAE player to hit a century in a World Cup.
His face was a picture of pure joy. No strategic wielding of the bat so that the sponsor’s logo gets maximum coverage. Happily for cricket, the moment was unsullied by such cynicism.
The national team are being charged by raw emotion.
Further evidence was the two wickets Mohammed Tauqir took with his canny off-spin: no send off, no aggression, just beaming smiles.
While the UAE are winning supporters all over the world for the way they are playing here, they only have two defeats to show for their toils.
“Shaiman played superbly, credit goes to him for a brilliant innings,” said Tauqir, the captain.
“Later on in the Ireland innings, the dew meant the ball was slightly wet. It wasn’t easy for the seamers and it went down to the wire.”
pradley@thenational.ae
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