ABU DHABI // Amjad Javed made up for a frustrating week spent on the sidelines by bowling UAE to a comprehensive win over Papua New Guinea at Zayed Cricket Stadium.
The fast bowler took three for 12 from his four overs to set up the national team’s five-wicket win in the first Twenty20 international of the three-match series.
Amjad takes time off from working as an airline cargo loadmaster to represent UAE, but had spent most of the past week carrying drinks for his teammates instead.
In order for the UAE to fit in an extra slow-bowler, he had to make way from the starting XI for the four-day Intercontinental Cup match which preceded the T20 series.
Including the three-match one-day series before that, Amjad had played just one out of a possible seven days of cricket against PNG. As a result, the former captain was happy to make up for lost time in the first T20.
“When you are outside the team, it is difficult to get yourself into the XI that is selected and you get frustrated,” Amjad said.
“You have to take it in a positive way, go and work hard, do your skills and fitness. I was doing that, concentrating on my fitness, because I was off from my work.
“I was waiting for my chance, and I wanted to take it. If your mindset is in the right direction, you work extra and show the captain and coach you are ready. I think I did that the right way.”
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The match was also a satisfying introduction for new left-arm spinner Sultan Ahmed. The Sialkot-born spinner made a stunning start to his international career, picking up a wicket and sending down a maiden within his first two overs.
Between him and Amjad, the UAE reduced PNG to eight for three, then 23 for four, and the match was as good as won from that point.
PNG were dismissed for 102 in 18.2 overs, with fast-bowler Mohammed Naveed also taking three wickets.
Shaiman Anwar, who scored the winning runs in the four-day match but has otherwise been run-shy by his standards of late, top scored with 39 in the run chase for UAE.
“It was a clinical performance in the field and, with the ball, I thought we were outstanding,” Dougie Brown, the UAE coach, said.
“Sultan Ahmed coming in and making his debut was brilliant, and Amjad showed the experience he has. It was an outstanding spell by both of them through the power play.”
The win was the UAE’s sixth in their past nine games. Their resurgence is down to having a settled squad, according to Amjad.
“If you keep a bunch of guys together, you gel together, play, talk, laugh, cry together,” Amjad, who was the UAE captain until February, said.
“We know it wasn’t good for us in the 12 months after Aaqib [Javed, the former coach] left. The guys were struggling. He introduced central contracts, but what was in his mind, nobody knows.
“All the players were confused, because the person who started this had left. We should thank the selectors that have kept selecting the same team. These are the best players in UAE.”
Meanwhile UAE wicketkeeper Ghulam Shabber has been fined 20 per cent of his match fee for breaching the ICC Code of Conduct during the third ODI against Papua New Guinea in Abu Dhabi last week.
The incident happened in the 20th over of PNG’s innings when Ghulam appealed successfully for a direct-hit run out of Lega Siaka. But a post-match review showed the ball had not hit the stumps and Ghulam had broken the wickets with his gloves.
pradley@thenational.ae
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