Editor's Note: A team of United Arab Emirates nationals, but not the UAE national team, played two matches against the Bahraini national team, on February 7 & 8 during a short visit to Bahrain. The UAE team contained two members of the national team as well as a selection of players of varying ability and experience. 'Beyond The Test World' is grateful to the Bahrain Cricket Association for these match reports.

Bahrain victory in first 'International'

Bahrain met the United Arab Emirates on Thursday, February 7, yesterday in the first match played by either team with squads consisting only of nationals. Bahrain won in a high scoring game.

The match took place at the BCC ground in Riffa with Bahrain batting first. Opener Ali Iftikhar started at a furious pace hitting a huge six over the cover boundary off the third ball and a glorious cover drive for four in the same over.

Iftikhar and his partner, captain Ahmed Mubarak, were looking for every opportunity for quick runs and the fact that they do not normally play together led to some misunderstandings when calling for runs. Attempting another quick single led to the fall of the first wicket. Iftikhar had raced to 43 off 33 balls in the tenth over when he pushed the ball to mid-off and called for the run. Fielder Qais Farooq gathered the ball and, with a superb throw at one stump, ran Iftikhar out.

Mubarak was still riding his luck, being dropped twice, and was joined by Imran Ghani and the pair continued to accumulate runs at a steady rate until the fifteenth over when, with the score on 91, Mubarak was out to a diving catch at mid-on by skipper Waleed Bukhatir off the bowling of Salman Farooq for 36.

This brought Irfan Rasheed to the wicket and after looking at the first few balls he began a determined assault on the UAE's bowling. The slow bowlers were very much to Rasheed's liking and with a flurry of boundaries he knocked Waleed Bukhatir and Mohammed Touqeer out of the attack.

It was not until the thirtieth over with the score on 208 that the next wicket fell when Imran Ghani was bowled by Qais Farooq for 36. Rizwan Matloob then came to the wicket and joined Rasheed in pummelling the bowlers.

Irfan Rasheed was only three runs short of a notable century when he was caught by Bukhatir off the bowling of Fahad Afdhd in the thirty-sixth over. Rizwan Matloob kept going until the final over although he lost partners along the way. UAE brought back spinner Salman Farooq for three overs at the end and he coped well with the pressure to take two more wickets for 16 runs.

In their forty overs Bahrain scored 296 runs for the loss of 7 wickets. Salman Farooq took 3 wickets for 37 runs in 8 overs and Fahad Afdhd took 2 for 42 off 8.

Bahrain had set UAE a big target but openers Saeed Al Saffar, who played in the 1996 World Cup, and Qais Farooq, set off as though they meant to reach it with plenty of overs to spare.

They got well ahead of the required run rate when, with the score on 106 in the fourteenth over, Bahrain had their first success when slow left armer Nabeel Murtaza was brought on and Al Saffar was caught behind by Rizwan Rasheed off his second ball.

With Mohammed Tauqeer at the wicket the run rate did not decline but slowly Bahrain's spin bowlers started to get on top and wickets began to fall.

With the score on 133, Qais Farook was the next to go, caught by Khalid Khalil at short mid-wicket off a full blooded shot and two overs later Waleed Bukhatir followed him caught by Nabeel Murtaza.

With the departure of Mohammed Tauqeer, caught by Imran Ghani off the bowling of Nabeel Murtaza in the twenty-sixth over, the main batting strength of the UAE was back in the pavilion and Bahrain's accurate spinners tightened the stranglehold.

Wickets continued to fall as UAE fell further behind the required run-rate and the last man was out in the thirty-ninth over with the score on 251.

Rizwan Matloob was Bahrain's most successful bowler taking 4 wickets for 46 runs in 7.2 overs. Ali Iftikhar and Nabeel Murtaza bowled their full allowance of 8 overs and took two wickets each for 42 runs and 37 runs respectively. The quicker bowlers were not so successful but Imran Ghani did take 1 wicket for 44 runs in 7 overs.

A feature of the match was the high standard of batting from both sides. The enthusiasm of the Bahrain side in the field was also noteworthy.

Bahrain 296-7 (40 overs) (Irfan Rasheed 97, Ali Iftikhar 43, Rizwan Matloob 42, Imran Ghani 36, Ahmed Mubarak 34; Salman Farooq 3 for 37 off 8, Fahad Afdhd 2 for 42 off 8, Qais Farooq 1 for 45 off 5) defeated United Arab Emirates XI 251-10 (39.2 overs) (Saeed Al Saffar 52, Mohammed Tauqeer 40, Qais Farooq 38, Ibrahim Mohammed 25, Salman Farooq 21; Rizwan Matloob 4 for 46 off 7.2, Nabeel Murtaza 2 for 37 off 8, Ali Iftikhar 2 for 42 off 8 Imran Ghani 1 for 44 off 7) Bahrain won by 45 runs.

UAE cricketers get their revenge

After Thursday's 45 run defeat to Bahrain, the UAE team were determined to turn the tables in the second match of their short tour on Friday. UAE batted first and from the first ball made their intentions known.

Their World Cup player, Saeed Al Saffar, smashed it straight at Bahrain's captain, Ahmed Mubarak, at mid-off but unfortunately for Bahrain the catch went down. It proved to be an expensive drop as Al Saffar went on to blast 94 runs off the Bahrain attack.

Al Saffar played a cavalier innings going for shots and looking for quick runs. This meant he was always likely to give chances to Bahrain and so he did. He was dropped again off a skier to mid-off in the fourth over and a mix up between the wickets led to Adil Farooq being run out in the third over.

These mishaps just added to the excitement and UAE raced to 100 in the tenth over. They continued to score at 10 an over until Mubarak switched to his slow bowlers in the fifteenth over.

As happened in the first game, the spinners quickly brought the run rate down and, more importantly, got the plum wicket of Al Saffar. Trying to force the pace against the slow men he swung and missed at Nabil Murtaza and was clean bowled in the sixteenth over. His stroke-packed innings included seventeen 4s and one 6 and he faced only 54 balls.

Up to this point it looked as though UAE were going to set a target of well over 300 runs but with the departure of Al Saffar the spinners came into the ascendancy and the run rate was brought permanently under control.

Qais Farooq (42), Salman Farooq (49) and Mohammed Touqeer (23) worked hard for their runs but when they tried to accelerate the pace with ten overs to go wickets started to tumble and the last seven wickets fell for 45 runs. The last man was out in the thirty-fourth over with the score on 242.

Bahrain's slow bowlers returned the best figures with Rizwan Matloob taking 4 wickets for 44 runs in 7 overs and catching two off his own bowling. Ali Iftikhar took 3 for 52 in 7 and Nabil Murtaza 1 for 36 in 7 overs.

After the way that UAE had started their innings Bahrain were pleased to have kept the final score down to a manageable level.

Saeed Al Saffar kept wicket in the first match but was asked to open the bowling in the second and he did so to great effect. Although he batted right handed he bowled left arm quick and most of the Bahrain batsmen found him almost impossible to deal with.

In the first match Irfan Rasheed was Bahrain's hero coming in at number four to hit 97 runs. In Friday's game he was asked to open the innings and, facing the second ball from Al Saffar, he was caught and bowled. Al Saffar's hostility with the ball seemed to filter through to his partner Fahad Afdhd and in his first over he bowled Ali Iftikhar.

With the score on 10 for 2, Imran Ghani joined Ahmed Mubarak at the crease and runs began to flow. Al Saffar was still a major threat and he bowled Mubarak (8) in the seventh over.

With the score on 175 in the twenty-fourth over, Imran Ghani became another victim but not before he had scored 95 runs that included fifteen 4s and one 6 off 62 balls and given Bahrain a chance of winning the match. The experienced Al Saffar followed up a very sharp delivery with a well-disguised slower ball and took an easy return catch.

When the ninth wicket fell in the thirtieth over Bahrain needed to get 42 runs off 34 balls and Usman Ghani and Nasir Showkat were well on the way to doing it when only 11 runs were needed with 22 balls remaining. But it was not to be and Showkat was caught in the thirty-second over to give the win to the UAE XI by 10 runs.

Apart from being notable as the first international games for Bahrain and UAE played by nationals, the fixture was also exceptional because both teams included sets of three brothers, the Abdulghanis for Bahrain and the Farooqs for UAE.

UAE XI 242 (Saeed Al Saffar 94, Salman Farooq 49 n.o., Qais Farooq 42; Rizwan Matloob 4 for 44 off 7, Ali Iftikhar 3 for 51 off 7, Nabeel Murtaza 1 for 36 off 7, Nasir Showkat 1 for 30 off 2.2) defeated Bahrain 232 (Imran Ghani 95, Rizwan Ghani 29; Saeed Al Saffar 5 for 37 off 7, Adil Farooq 2 for 40 off 4.2, Mohammed Touqeer 1 for 31 off 7, Fahad Afdhd 1 for 49 off 7) UAE XI won by 10 runs.

© ICC 2002