Head coach Dougie Brown insists revenge will not be on his players’ minds when the UAE take on Hong Kong on Thursday for a place in the Asia Cup main round.
The two nations meet in the Qualifier final at Kuala Lumpur’s Kinrara Oval (05:30am UAE start) where the winners can look forward to joining India and Pakistan in Group A of the showpiece event later this month.
It will be their second meeting in four days after Hong Kong triumphed by a convincing 182 runs on Saturday but Brown says his team is not seeking revenge.
“Tomorrow isn’t about revenge,” the 48-year-old said, whose side finished top of the six-team standings with eight points.
“We are facing a dangerous team and we know how well they played in the group stage. We know what is at stake tomorrow. If we get that right then we face the two biggest games that the UAE will play and more significantly in our own backyard.”
.@EmiratesCricket and @CricketHK will battle it out for a spot in #AsiaCup2018!
— AsianCricketCouncil (@ACCMedia1) September 4, 2018
Who has the upper hand in Thursday's showdown? pic.twitter.com/wxlCfmxjzT
Hong Kong, who finished runners-up in the standings, are the only side the UAE failed to beat in the tournament which featured Nepal, Singapore, Oman and Malaysia.
Brown is wary of the threat posed by Hong Kong but knows if every UAE team members plays to potential, they will be hard to beat.
“Everyone knows what we’re playing for and we have to understand what we need to do as individuals,” he added. “If each person gets their own individual game right and have the right attitude that we showed throughout the whole tournament, then result should look after itself. There is a lot of cricket to be played until the end of the game.”
