Senior NAT Team - General Discussion

[NPD-PowerBug]

The less said about the WC the better. I'm appalled, it was a massive let down after what was a pretty successful cycle up to that point.

[MrMoose]

Congratulations Powerbug on another display of democratic freedom.

Now onto winning 4 World Cups in the next 4 seasons as promised!

[NPD-PowerBug]

It's great to be given another chance.

If you're not yet involved, you'll want to get around us, it's going to be an exciting time

[NPD-PowerBug]

And it starts with a farewell. We cull many players over the course of a season, it depends on how they plop after the age of 30 as to how quickly, but not many of them get their own goodbye message. This player, Altair Yousif, or as he was more commonly called amongst his peers, Al Capone, is up there as one of the greatest batsmen the UAE has produced.

Capone has been capped a massive 80 times in his senior NAT career, scoring over 2000 runs. Averaging more than 32 in NOD and a touch under 20 in NT20 he's been a consistent pick in every tour for the last 6 seasons, whilst also providing an added bonus of being able to captain the side.

It's time to say goodbye to the most reliable batsman I've had the joy of managing. His skills haven't deteriorated all too badly, he's certainly got a club career which can last another 2 seasons. Capone was the youngest player in my initial squad of 30 6 seasons ago when I first took over, he leaves the oldest, and the last of what I'm considering 'his generation'.

It's time to move on as we now turn a corner and bring in the next crop of players, and trust me when I say they excite me

[NPD-PowerBug]

Starting Squad
A new cycle begins, and that means there's some new faces. But because we have time let's run through the entire 30

# uncapped
^ capped only at T20 level
* capped only at OD level

RHB:
Junaid Fattah (Emirates Academy)
Alam Lahab* (Middle Stump Lubricators)
Rais Ibraheem* (Emirates Academy)
Hussein Mohammed (Unusual Suspects)
Zeke Ra'uf# (The Dragon Warrior)
Wahid Suhail^ (Co-Vidians)

LHB:
Salman Nasser (Emirates Academy)
Mustafa Basit# (Me & My Buddies)
Ramiz Fawzi# (Scott's Tots)
Junaid Mahmoud (Hoarders CC)
Amjad Hadi (Allmänna Idrottsklubben)

WK:
Yarden Shareef (Southern Squirrels)
Gadil Murat (Emirates Academy)
Abbas Rafi* (Laputa Wanderers)

Fast:
Sheik Yerbooty (Beiram's 11)
Salam Hadi (Emirates Academy)
Rahul Isa# (Almost)

Fast-Medium:
Abbud Dhul* (Emirates Academy)
Basil Zafar# (Illawarra Dragons CC)
Hana Fawzi# (Me & My Buddies)
Jawad Habib (Emirates Academy)

Medium:
Salman Kardal (Exiles)
Gadil Khatib# (Kiss My Chaminda Vaas)
Muadh Murat^ (The Bengals)

Finger-Spin:
Malik Razzaq (Emirates Academy)
Nazmi Abdulah* (Emirates Academy)
Yousif Nu'man (Takashinga Cricket Club)

Wrist-Spin:
Tawfiq Ghafur (Takashinga Cricket Club)
Kale Saheed# (Scott's Tots)
Wazir Jubair* (Emirates Academy)

Yep, there's lots of players courtesy of Penky's Emirates Academy side. It's more a sign of there being so few players in the UAE pool though, and all these players were purchases, we just need more high end academies looking to preference UAE players

Next In Line
Let's also have a look at some players who are lined up as potential to come into the squad in the near future. If you want a UAE NAT in the near future, maybe bookmark one of these guys and maybe they will hit the market.
Riyad Salih [RHB] (Emirates Academy)
Davis Genat [RHB] (One Man Rock Band)
Abu Taymulla [LHB] (Sydney Cricket Club)
Ahmad Kamal [WK] (Trevor Francis Tracksuit)
Amid Ameen [rf] (Walking Champ)
Cemal Rahman [rfm] (Emirates Academy)
Kareem Ata [lm] (Emirates Academy)
Habib Salah [lfs] (The Bloodhounds)
Sharad Iqbal [lws] (Buggles United)

There's also a U24 watchlist being put together and we will post that here as well for anyone who wants to bookmark any players. That is a little more spread out when it comes to the clubs involved.

[NPD-PowerBug]

Senior tour begins tomorrow! Games are being hosted in Sri Lanka (05:30) and we've been given the following fixtures:

Even vs Canada
Even vs Sri Lanka
Hard vs Pakistan
Even vs USA
Uneven vs South Africa

And our touring party:
Junaid Fattah (Emirates Academy)
Alam Lahab (Middle Stump Lubricators)
Rais Ibraheem (Emirates Academy)
Hussein Mohammed (Unusual Suspects)
Salman Nasser (Emirates Academy)
Mustafa Basit (Me & My Buddies) [Debut]
Ramiz Fawzi (Scott's Tots) [Debut]
Yarden Shareef (Southern Squirrels)
Gadil Murat (Emirates Academy)
Sheik Yerbooty (Beiram's 11)
Salam Hadi (Emirates Academy)
Rahul Isa (Almost) [Debut]
Abbud Dhul (Emirates Academy)
Basil Zafar (Illawarra Dragons CC) [Debut]
Jawad Habib (Emirates Academy)
Muadh Murat (The Bengals) [NOD Debut]
Malik Razzaq (Emirates Academy)
Tawfiq Ghafur (Takashinga Cricket Club)

Congrats to those making their debut throughout the week Let's go get a promotion back to Div 1!

[NPD-PowerBug]

Day 1 vs Canada
The opening day went basically as well as we could've asked for. We lost the toss and bowled first and we put Canada on the back foot immediately with 2 wickets in the first 4 overs. Canada began to settle but then immediately after drinks it swung back in our favour with 3 wickets in the first 13 balls. We were eventually able to wrap up the innings for 161 with 6 overs left. Salam Hadi with 3/28 the pick of the bowlers.

In reply it was a Salman Nasser masterclass who batted for 120 balls and finished on an unbeaten 68, anchoring the innings through and allowed the runs to come from the other end. Hussein Mohammed (39) batted well on his recall to the side, Junaid Fattah (42) almost brought us home but it allowed Ramiz Fawzi (3) to end with a not out on his debut.

Day 2 vs Sri Lanka
Won the toss and batted. Sadly for us both openers fell inside 3 overs, but then our middle order recovered really well. Ibraheem (57) and Fawzi (29) steadied the ship, before Lahab (105) and Murat (33) ramped things up as the end overs approached. Sadly the tail couldn't stick around which saw 5-236 become 10-261.

Our bowling was not there. No wickets in the first 10 overs despite 6 of them coming from fast bowlers. We bowled economically enough for their pace to be no different to ours, however we weren't able to create chances and in the end their opener Kudavidanage made an unbeaten 124 and the score was chased 6 down with 4 overs spare.

Basil Zafar on debut was the only multiple wicket taker with 2/61 off 10.

Next up is Pakistan on a Hard

[NPD-PowerBug]

We beat Pakistan easy, we lost to USA easy. 2-2, must beat SOuth Africa to have a chance at promotion, it'll require another result to go our way too.


But the bigger news:
viewtopic.php?f=1&p=1540180#p1540180

We are getting a league system!!!

[MrMoose]

UAE LEAGUE UAE LEAGUE UAE LEAGUE

[NPD-PowerBug]

Both World Cups currently underway, Moose and team are in a good spot after 4 games, sitting 3-1 with the best NRR in their group. Still must win tomorrow for them. With our seniors we're currently 3-0, with matches played in the Netherlands (12:00). We've certainly been on the good end of some luck this week, Day 1 saw an awesome chase of 187 against a very strong Indian side. Hussein Mohammed with 83 off 50 really showed why he deserved to be on the plane, whilst debutant Abu Taymulla hit a six when 9 runs were needed off 3 balls to lift us over the line.

Day 2 we set New Zealand 148, with a massive thanks to all rounders Jawad Habib and Muadh Murat lifting the total. It was then Murat again with the ball as he and Yousif Wahid (double OBB) triggered a massive collapse of 8/17 to save us. 8 run win.

Day 3 Rahul Isa with 4/18 was the pick of the bowlers as we restricted the Netherlands to 108. In the chase both openers got us off to a great start ensuring we never had RR issues, but then a mid-innings collapse saw it get squeaky as the target approached. Thankfully Jawad Habib turned up and steered us home with an unbeaten 15.

Day 4 sees us play England, and Day 5 Ireland. We only need to win one of these two matches to qualify for the semi finals. Head to the discord for some (mostly civil) chatter when the games are on.

Oh and whilst you're here, don't forget to give UAE a youth pull or two through the new season if you can. We still have a very small player base supported by a small handful of committed managers. There's plenty of opportunities especially at U20 level to have a player end up on tour for us who just doesn't get a look in at some of the larger nations. The $20k income per Youth tour adds up!

Go the UAE!

Cheers,

PowerBug

[MrMoose]

Congrats on making it through to the final! Make us proud.