ICC Intercontinental Cup and Shield

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES v IRELAND The match was originally scheduled as a home game for Ireland but the Irish Cricket Union preferred to concede home advantage, so that their players contracted to English counties would be available and the match could be used as a warm-up for a tour of Bangladesh at the end of March 2008. Despite playing out of season, Ireland were marginally stronger on the first day when the United Arab Emirates, their captain having won the toss, opted to bat. David Langford-Smith trapped Gayan Silva leg-before with the fourth ball of the day and wickets went down at regular intervals thereafter, virtually regardless of which bowlers were used. With the Emirates on 121 for six, a poor first-innings total looked imminent, but they were returned to respectability by a seventh-wicket partnership of 97 runs between Sameer Zia and Ahmed Raza. Once Sameer Zia reached his half-century, he missed a straight ball from Alex Cusack. Smart cricket then led to the rapid conclusion of the innings as Cusack bowled Shoaib Sarwar, Paul Stirling produced a direct hit from backward short leg to run out Zahid Shah and Ahmed Raza fell to a spectacular catch by William Porterfield. Ireland lost Stirling, undone by the pace of Fahad Alhashmi, but Porterfield and Eoin Morgan batted out the day without further alarms. The match remained evenly contested for much of the second day. Porterfield and Morgan patiently took the score to 67 before Zahid Shah had Porterfield leg-before. Just as he was looking dangerous, a similar fate befell Morgan against the bowling of Ahmed Raza on 102. The O’Brien brothers kept the score moving with a mixture of sound defence and good choice of shots. Kevin O’Brien looked the more settled of the two but, with Ireland looking comfortable on 166 for three, he nicked Ahmed Raza to the wicketkeeper. With two more quick wickets, the Emirates had Ireland on 203 for six and the prospect of a first-innings lead became a possibility. Trent Johnston joined Niall O’Brien and dominated a seventh-wicket stand of 163, hitting ten fours in an innings of 69, made at a strike rate of 72.6. Niall O’Brien, who was on tablets and special drinks all day to counteract a stomach upset and had been uncharacteristically subdued, started to enjoy himself and struck boundaries all round the ground. When Johnston was stumped off the spin of Saqib Ali, the umpires ended play for the day, leaving Niall O’Brien undefeated on 137, after having been at the crease for nearly six and a half hours and hit 20 fours. Kyle McCallan joined Niall O’Brien on the third morning and their partnership of 77 virtually took the Emirates out of the game. They missed one chance when O’Brien was dropped at deep point by Nizel Fernandes, the latter injuring his hand in the process and making it unlikely that he would be able to bat in the second innings. Niall O’Brien hit four more boundaries in taking his score to 174 before he was caught by the wicketkeeper, mistiming a reverse sweep off Sameer Zia, to end a magnificent effort of eight hours and six minutes. McCallan went on to his half-century and Langford-Smith defied the bowlers for 37 balls to add 27 for the last wicket before becoming Saqib Ali’s third victim. Ireland now had a lead of 246 runs and soon made inroads into the Emirates’ batting. With Johnston unable to bowl because of an elbow strain and swollen upper arm, Kevin O’Brien took the new ball with Langford-Smith, but the latter managed only five overs before retiring with an ankle injury. It was the appearance of McCallan as first change, however, that proved effective as his off spin took out both openers. Johnston then managed three overs before deciding not to aggravate his injury but this was enough to remove Naeemuddin Aslam. Thereafter McCallan, Cusack, Andre Botha and Greg Thompson shared the bowling and the wickets as the Emirates lost four of their middle order for just 19 runs. Exactly why their batting was so poor was difficult to understand as Saqib Ali seemed quite untroubled at the other end and was accumulating runs with ease. Late in the day he found a steady partner in Zahid Shah and together they took the score from 127 for seven to 186 without further loss at the close. Saqib Ali was left two runs short of his hundred, having hit 14 fours and two sixes and maintained a strike rate of 71.5. The Irish captain wanted to claim the extra half-hour to finish off match but the umpires, erroneously, disallowed the request. They later apologised to Trent Johnston. As it turned out, the umpires must have had foresight that the Emirates innings could not be completed in 30 minutes as Saqib Ali and Zahid Shah added another 100 runs and batted until mid afternoon on the fourth day before Zahid was leg-before to Thompson. He had batted for four hours and 48 minutes for his valuable 28 runs. Fahad Alhashmi went first ball but, surprisingly, Nizel Fernandes batted and lasted 37 minutes to help Saqib Ali take the innings total beyond 300. Saqib Ali was eventually the last man out, after seven hours 36 minutes, for a magnificent 195, which was 64% of his side’s score. It was two overs before the start of the last hour before Ireland scored the winning runs for what, on paper, looked like a comfortable victory but they were made to fight all the way. Saqib Ali was deservedly named Man of the Match. 144 ICC Intercontinental Cup 2007-08