Welsh rips through UAE

Canada 124 for 4 (Bastiampillai 29*, Mulla 28*) lead UAE 112 (Welsh 7-42) by 12 runs
Scorecard

Steven Welsh ripped through UAE on the opening day of their Intercontinental Cup match against Canada in Toronto. In his second first-class match, Welsh took the first five wickets to fall, and finished with seven, as UAE crashed for 112 in less than 40 overs.

UAE soon regretted their decision to bat first as they slumped to 20 for 5 with Welsh causing all sorts of problems with his medium pace. Gayan Silva and Shadeep Silva stopped the slide momentarily with a sixth-wicket stand of 41 before Shadeep fell to Kevin Sandher.

Welsh returned to end Gayan Silva's stubborn 104-ball 36, but UAE squeezed into three figures as Ahmed Nadeem struck a 16-ball 22.

Canada didn't have everything their own way in reply, both openers falling in the first two overs against a testing new-ball attack of Nadeem and Javed Ismail. However, the first significant stand came from Qaiser Ali and Trevin Bastiampillai with Ali playing the most authoritative innings of the day with 42. Though he fell before the close Canada are already ahead and well placed to build a useful lead.