News: Namibia sensing victory on first day!

Well well….. what is happenning here?

Nambia have been quite impressive in the South African provincial championships as well, but I thought that UAE would be able to put up a better fight. Being dismissed for a under 100 and then conceding a 150 runs lead on day 1 is pretty bad, and I would be very surprised if UAE can recover from this.

At the associate level, the home and away condititions matter a lot. They used to matter in professional cricket as well, but the issue is not as stark now as it used to be 20 years ago. Namibia has a home advantage, but it doesnt look like the batting was that difficult on that pitch given that Namibia have manged a decent total so far. Arshad Ali, Saqib Ali, Khurram Khan and Ali Asad were all playing so there arent many excuses to make from UAE side.

Additionally, if Taibu is trying to qualify for Namibia, then in about 4 years time the Namibians are going to feature an even stronger outfit. I think UAE would start asking the value of playing in the ACC Premier league. They seem to be not getting much better playing those, though, the other teams are benefitting.

I did see that UAE is hosting Bermuda for one day games next year. That would be the way to go for them, not necessarily Bermuda, but the other top associates would give them good competition and practice.