World cup 2015 Match 16 Ireland v UAE Review: A nail-biter between associate nations

World cup 2015 Match 16 Ireland v UAE Review: A nail-biter between associate nations: The battle of associate nations Ireland and UAE was an interesting one. The UAE made a decent score batting first, but their bowlers made Ireland sweat profusely in order to gain a win against them. Read the review of the match.

UAE batted first after being put in by Ireland. UAE got a decent opening stand of 49 runs before slipping to 125/5 with Amjad Ali 45 and Khurram Khan 36 scoring the runs mainly. But Shaiman Anwar dug in and along with the help of Amjad Javed who made 42, started to lead UAE towards a decent total. Shaiman Anwar became the first UAE player to make a century in World cup, he made 106 off 83 balls.
Ireland bowlers were initially successful but at the end, they found it difficult to cope with Anwar’s counter attack. Paul Stirling was their best bowler taking 2 wickets for a miserly 27 runs off his 10 overs.

The chase turned out to be an exciting one as the Irish batsmen found it hard to play the UAE pace bowlers on the bouncy Gabba pitch. UAE bowlers took early wickets of Ireland in the first 10 overs and left them 4/97 in 25 overs with the likes of Niall O’Brien (17), William Porterfield (37) back in the pavilion.  Andy Bilbirnie (30) and Gary Wilson (80) stemmed the fall of wickets and slowly rebuild the innings. After Bilbirnie departed, UAE were suddenly facing a terrific counter attack from Kevin O’Brien who made 50 off just 25 balls with 8 fours and 2 sixes. This titled the cliff hanging match in Ireland’s favour. But the final twist remained as both O’Brien and Wilson departed with 25 runs more to get. The UAE bowlers tried to build pressure on the tail-enders but Ireland got the required 3 runs off the last over for a terrific win and great morale booster. UAE on other hand would be proud of their bowlers like Amjad Javed (3/60), Mohd. Tauqir (2/38) and Mohd. Naveed (2/65) who made Ireland, a better team than themselves work very very hard for their runs and taking the match to the last over.

Gary Wilson got the Man of the match for his match winning 80 runs.

Brief Scores:
UAE 278/9 (S Anwar 106, A Ali 45; P Stirling 2/27) lost to Ireland 279/8 (G Wilson 80. K O’Brien 50; A Javed 3/60) by 2 wickets.