UAE's Mohammad Naveed aiming to claim wickets of Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels

Denzil Pinto 13:10 05/03/2018
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  • Mohammad Naveed (centre)

    Following his five-wicket haul on Sunday, Mohammad Naveed has warned West Indies batsmen ‘to be in for a hard time’ with the pacer targeting the wickets of Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels.

    Naveed was in sensational form with the ball, claiming his maiden ODI five-four with figures of 5-28 in the UAE’s 56-run (D/L method) victory in their opening game of the World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe.

    That achievement is even more remarkable considering he battled through the pain barrier after having three stitches to his left hand following a training accident.

    Now the 30-year-old is eager to add to his tally for the tournament. Next up is reigning World T20 champions West Indies on Tuesday and he has set his sights on two of their batsmen – Gayle and Samuels.

    Just on Thursday, Naveed dismissed Gayle in their warm-up game and says there’s no reason why can’t do the same again.

    “I’m really happy to claim five wickets and that too considering it’s our first match of the tournament,” he said. “Although the conditions are a little different to the UAE, I was getting a lot of swing on these wickets and I’m especially hungry to build on this and get more wickets for the UAE.”

    He added: “West Indies have a lot of fantastic players in their team but Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels are my targets. It would be a dream to get those two out because they are key batsmen who can get the runs. As a fan, I enjoy watching Chris Gayle because on his day, there’s no-one better than him. He’s one of the best batsmen in the world. It was a great feeling to get him out on Thursday but to do it again in the World Cup Qualifier would be special.”

    In that 32-run defeat, the UAE impressed by bowling the Caribbean side out for 115 but batsmen struggled with four batsmen reaching double figures including top-scorer Adnan Mufti (14).

    But Naveed insists they can be encouraged by how they bounced back against Papua New Guinea and is confident they will not make the same errors again.

    “Amir Hayat bowled very well and so did Imran Haider. Our batsmen showed they can get the runs on a difficult wicket and I’m sure that against West Indies we can do well against them. We made mistakes last time but I’m sure we will not do those again on Tuesday.”

    For UAE captain Rohan Mustafa, he warned the West Indies not to expect an easy ride.

    “I believe they have to be afraid of us. The toss will be important as it will for the rest of the matches but we can beat them. We will play hard and give tough time to them,” he said.

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