Mr. Extras saves UAE Under-17s - Match ends in an exciting tie

The match was played at Quetta, the capital of the province of Baluchistan. It is a hill station surrounded by snow-clad mountains and chilly winds in winter and a pleasantly cool weather in summer.

Malaysia won the toss and elected to bat, losing wickets at regular intervals till they were 46 for 4, after which the innings appeared to have stabilized. In 29 overs they were 79 for 4 with S. Vickneswaran (23) and Eszafiq Abdul Azis (14) fighting out the medium pacer Mohammad Usman, who had dominated the game, claiming 3 of the 4 wickets.

Abdul Azis continued with his fighting innings till he was out for a defiant 46 scored in 65 balls with 5 hits to the boundary. K. Sathiaseelan was the other batsman to contribute a useful 18. As usual Mr. EXTRAS was again the second highest contributor with a valuable 39.

Malaysia was 9 for 166 in 45 overs. This was atleast one team, which consumed its full quota of overs. Mohammad Usman took 3 wickets for 18 while other bowlers evenly shared the rest.

UAE innings

Confronted with a fighting target of 167 runs to win, UAE had an excellent start of 78 runs provided by its openers. Playing a cavalier innings of 50 in 31 balls that contained 7 scintilating boundaries, Amir Hussain laid a solid foundation for his team's victory. His partner Amir Shahzad strengthened the foundation by contributing 21 useful runs with a similar innings of 27 by Mohammad Abdullah. With 18 hits to the boundary in a total of 166, this was one of the most enterprising innings of the tournament.

The batsmen, who followed, however, faltered in their efforts, turning an easy victory into a difficult situation that caused the match to end in an exciting tie. The team was only able to manage 166 runs by the time the 10th wicket fell. They must thank Malaysia for conceding massive 35 extras, otherwise UAE would have lost. With the points evenly shared, UAE still jumped into the semis.