United Arab Emirates youngster Aravind and Bahrain’s Junaid Aziz produced career-best performances to help their teams win Group B matches on day one of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier A here on Friday.
Dream of leg-spinner Aziz, who took five wickets in ten balls and captain’s innings by Sarfaraz Ali, who scored an unbeaten 69 off 38 balls, helped Bahrain to a six-wicket win over Germany at Oman Academy Ground 2. For UAE, the stars of their 18-run victory over Ireland were the team’s young pair – 19-year-old Aravind and 21-year-old Karthik Meiyappan.
Aravind missed a deserved first century by just three runs from his team’s unbeaten run of 97 off 67 balls in his team’s total of 157. His fine innings included 13 fours and a six, while Meiyappan took three for 16 in his three-over spell as Ireland bowled. Were restricted to 139 for nine.
Chasing a target of 158, Ireland opener Paul Stirling and captain Andy Balbirnie made a cautious start to take their team for 50 for no loss at the end of the power play overs.
Meiyappan struck the very first ball of his spell as he was caught in the deep by Muhammad Wasim for 32. Balbirnie left shortly thereafter and Gareth Delany was Meiyappan’s second wicket, which attributed to Simi Singh as Ireland struggled to 66–4. ,
George Dockrell and Shane Getkett started but were dismissed first to accelerate the run-rate as Ireland went down to 111-6 in 16 overs. Lorcan Tucker’s innings of 25 came to an end when he was caught by Basil Hameed off Zahoor Khan, who also had Craig Young leg before the wicket. Veteran Rohan Mustafa took two late wickets to restrict Ireland to 139 for nine.
Earlier, the 20-year-old Aravind displayed maturity beyond his age as he took the responsibility of leading the team to a challenging target.
Coming to bat with the team’s total at 20-2, Aravind paced his innings in style. The wicketkeeper-batsman handled the middle overs cleverly before launching the attack in the death overs. The last five overs were the most productive for UAE as Aravind displayed his range of strokes and combined with Zafar Farid (12) to score 63 valuable runs.
He got 14 off Ireland’s Craig Young in the last over and Mark Adair went for 14 runs in the final over of the innings as Arvind hit two consecutive boundaries. Aravind began the blitz with a six before Joshua Little patted Farid on the second ball in the final over of the innings, followed by two back-to-back cuts behind the boundary as UAE finished 157 for five.
Adair got Ireland off to a great start with the wicket of opener Chirag Suri in the very first over. Arvind came with Mohammad Wasim and both took the score to 20 in four overs. Young broke the deadlock by dismissing Wasim on the first ball of the fifth over. Unaffected, Aravind again struck a counter attack as he hit two consecutive boundaries in the same over.
Aravind and Mustafa carried ship as the scoring rate fell and the team was able to score 58-2 at the half stage. Simi Singh got the breakthrough Ireland needed in the next over as he was dismissed but Basil Hameed and Aravind put on a crucial 34-run partnership. An ICC report said that with Hameed’s exit, Arvind and Farid took the team to the total they could defend.
In another match, Germany made a score of 106 runs with 20 balls to spare after Bahrain won the toss. He lost six wickets in 14 balls, while adding 7 runs to the scoreboard. Vijay Shankar played a solid 43-ball 50 as the top scorer.
After making a steady start in the first five overs, openers Justin Broad and Michael Richardson were dismissed in back-to-back overs. A flurry of wickets in quick succession undermined their efforts as Dylan Blignot and Faisal Mubashir were dismissed in successive deliveries of the ninth over.
Shankar and captain Venkat Ganesan were able to rebuild the innings with a priceless 44-run partnership before Aziz was dismissed as part of a three-wicket over. Germany lost the fourth wicket in five balls to Shankar on the first ball of the very next over.
In response, Captain Ali’s confident and mature innings helped Bahrain reach their target. Dieter Klein took two wickets in the first over for Germany. But the 57-run stand between Ali and Aziz put their team in complete control.
Aziz was dismissed in the tenth over but by the time Germany took their next wicket, Bahrain needed 15 runs in 6 overs. Ali stayed till the end to watch the win, and Bahrain crossed the line with four overs to spare.
Germany will have a chance to improve on Saturday’s game against the UAE. On the other hand, Bahrain will face Ireland.
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