Host’s Kuwait, UAE and Saudi Arabia won their respective first round of group phase matches in the ICC Asia “A” qualifiers in Kuwait.
While UAE got a bit of a scare earlier on with the start Qatar got, their bowlers (Mohammad Naveed with 3/31 and Imran Haider with 2/33) pulled things back in the later half of the innings to restrict Qatar to below 150. A captain’s innings by Rohan Mustafa of 71 runs led UAE to victory by 6 wickets.
Kuwait had a wobbly start to their innings losing two wickets with only a run on board but a crucial knock of 66 unbeaten runs from Mohammad Asghar took their final total to 170. Maldives batting line-up failed to put any pressure on the Kuwait bowlers as Imran Ali picked up the first five-for in the tournament to bowl them out for only 68 runs to register a big victory by 102 runs. Imran’s figures of 5/2 in 2.4 overs could well be in contention for top figures in an T20 match.
The final match of the day saw Bahrain get bowled out for a below-par 106 runs which Saudi Arabia toppled in the 16th over to win the match by 7 wickets. Saudi bowlers Khawar Abbas (4/17) and Usman Ali (3/20) doing the damage to set up the match for their batsmen, who didn’t have much of a opposition while chasing the target, losing only 3 wickets in the process.
Qatar will be dissapointed after the start they got as they were comfortably placed at 91/2 in the 12th over at one stage. UAE will look to their openers Ashfaq Ahmed and Chirag Suri to provide them a better start next time.
Kuwait’s real challenge will come up against the likes of UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia and performances like today’s will provide them good confidence ahead of those crucial games, which will potentially decide the top 3 qualifying spots from the qualifiers. Bahrain needs to look closely in their batting department to provide their bowlers the chance to exert pressure on their opponents.
For Maldives, this will be a tough experience but they’ll surely come out of it and perform better as we go along in the competition and of they manage to sneak in some wins, it would only add more drama in the tournament.
In all, an action-packed day in Kuwait and all eyes on tomorrow when the 2nd round of group phase matches takes place.
