UAE Under-16 skipper Aryan Lakra believes the eight-wicket victory over Oman on Monday will give them a lot of confidence going into the rest of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Western Region tournament.
The fixture had been delayed due to rain at Ajman’s Eden Gardens, forcing the game to be reduced from 35 to 23 overs. However, that did not stop the hosts comfortably reach their 102-run target in the 18th over with Ansh Tandon scoring a fluent 49.
The batsmen would have fancied their chances of reaching the target after Chathiya Dashan (1-7), Lakra (1-22) and Yuvraj Jaisingh (1-16) were among the wicket-takers for the UAE as Oman struggled to reach 101-5.
The UAE will again be on the field when they play Maldives at Sharjah on Tuesday. Another win will clinch top spot and a place in the semi-finals and Lakra believes the team will be raring to go after beating Oman.
“It feels great to win the first game and it will give us good momentum going into the upcoming games and hopefully we can carry this through for the rest of the tournament,” said the 14-year-old all-rounder.
“This game wasn’t much of a competition. Oman put on a good show but we were more stronger in all departments. The most important thing is that we won and we want to do it again against Maldives and book our place in the semi-finals.”
Despite the margin of the victory, Lakra says there’s still room for improvement if they want to go all the way and lift the trophy on Friday.
“I’m really happy with how we bowled but there are still some things that we want to improve on in the next game and try and get better.”
