Bhutan's bowlers are not the only ones who will be happy to see the back of the facilities at the Unity Cricket Ground in Kuwait. They leaked 510 runs between them against the UAE yesterday, which makes for an aggregate of nearly one thousand conceded in two days of action, following their pounding at the hands of Afghanistan on Wednesday. Not everyone got full value from the national team's extraordinary landslide of runs in their opening match against the small Himalayan nation.
Thanks to the modest resources available at the stadium, Naee-muddin Aslam, the UAE vice-captain, missed out on a century by two runs. Aslam said: "I had no clue I was on 98, but if someone had told me I would probably have still played the same shot I got out to. "The scoreboard does not have the individual scores, only the team score. "Apparently my teammates were shouting out that I was on 98, but it was too windy and I couldn't hear them."
Aslam said it had not been the intention of his side to lay down a marker to the Afghans with an emphatic display with the bat, after today's opponents had enjoyed a similarly comprehensive win over Bhutan a day earlier. "We did not start the game in that frame of mind, but when we passed 400 with eight overs to go, we thought that we could reach 500," added the Dubai-born batsman. "I've played in matches before where 500 has been scored in a one day game - if you count both innings together! Never in one innings.
"It was a good job there were no low-flying planes in the area, balls were flying everywhere." While the UAE were making merry and breaking records, another Gulf side was in action on the second day of competition in Kuwait. Oman, who qualified to play in this tournament when they beat Bhutan in the Challenge tournament final, claimed an eight-wicket win over a Singapore side coached by Marvan Atappattu, the Sri Lankan great.
pradley@thenational.ae
