Fly Emirates Stars Lead Denmark Demolition
June 22, 2009 by Editor
Filed under Dubai News
The UAE National team, spearheaded by three Fly Emirates players, destroyed Denmark yesterday at the Cricket World Cup qualifying tournament in South Africa.
Amjed Javed, with an amazing innings of 164 from 117 balls – including 17 fours and eight sixes – kept alive the UAE’s dream of reaching the 2011 Asia showpiece by leading them to an emphatic 112-run victory.
The result eased the Emirates Cricket Board into the Super Eights stage alongside Kenya and the Netherlands, with all three teams on six points with one Group B match remaining.
Javed’s man-of-the-match display inspired the UAE to a mammoth total of 379-6 off 50 overs, with skipper Khurram Khan smashing 56 off just 37 balls.
The duo – along with Arshad Ali – who chipped in with a handy 35, including six fours – prepared for the tournament playing for Fly Emirates against a host of top English County sides in the Emirates Airline Pro ARCH Trophy.
Remarkably the trio, who juggle cricket with busy workloads at the Dubai-based airline, were in the Fly Emirates side which inflicted a morale-sapping defeat on the UAE ahead of the trip to South Africa.
However, the players learned from the experience of facing English stars like Michael Vaughan and Matthew Hoggard and shocked tournament favourites, the Netherlands, with a terrific two-wicket win in their second match.
The UAE had it much easier against the Danes, who put in a brave effort to reach 267 all out from 44.4 overs, with Frederik Klokker (77), Michael Pedersen (60) and Carsten Pedersen (58) leading the scoring, while Javed and Khan got in on the act again with a wicket each.
The UAE – who bounced back from a nine-wicket loss to Kenya to add a win over the Dutch to a four-wicket victory over Bermuda – take on Afghanistan on Wednesday in their final group match before the Super Eights gets under way on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Fly Emirates claimed another victory over the UAE at the weekend, beating the under-19 side in Dubai, with Lalith Dhanayake, Saby Fernandes, Nigel Fernandes, Muhammed Iqbal and Yasin Sikander all making valuable contributions.
