UAE coach Aaqib Javed has warned his players must improve their fielding if they want to qualify for next year’s World Twenty20.
Winless so far in Group B after defeats to Scotland and Afghanistan, the UAE have an opportunity to claim their first victory in the qualifying event when they meet Netherlands in Edinburgh today.
The former Pakistani seamer is under no illusions as to the difficulty facing his side in their bid to seal one of the six berths for the showpiece event in India.
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“We have four more games to play and we have to grab every opportunity,” he said. “Nothing has worked out well for us in fielding,” he said. We’ve been dropping straight-forward catches in our two games and our fielding has not been as consistent.
“There was a lot of sloppy fielding in both of our games but it’s important we don’t do this for the rest of the tournament as it not only costs runs but can have an effect on the team if players are dropping simple catches.”
He added: “It’s my job as coach to correct these errors we’re doing and I will try my best to motivate them because fielding is key to winning games.”
While Javed was pleased to see his team post 164 against Afghanistan, having been skittled out for 109 to Scotland, he has seen his bowlers struggle.
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The UAE have taken only three wickets in their two games and the coach feels fast-bowler Mohammad Naveed, who took the only scalp in the nine-wicket defeat to Scotland, has struggled so far but has backed him to come good.
“I think it’s down to his confidence and he needs to think about doing the basics right,” said the 42-year-old.
“In T20, you don’t need to give room to a batsman, you should bowl the ball in a straight line,” he said. “It’s all about controlling the variations and I have full confidence he can take more wickets because he really is a superb bowler.”
Having seen his team beaten comprehensively on Thursday and Friday, Javed knows it won’t be an easy task against the Dutch, who lie fourth in Group B with two points.
“Netherlands are a decent team and we have to bat, bowl and field really well otherwise it’s going to be tough to qualify,” he said.
“We just have to keep the basics right to register a win. If we’re batting first, we have to look at 170 plus runs and defend it.”
In the last meeting at the 2014 World Twenty20, the Dutch registered a six-wicket win. In that match in Bangladesh, they came up against captain Peter Borren and batsman Tom Cooper and Javed feels both will pose big threats.
“Borren and Cooper are quite dangerous and we have to keep them quiet and try and get them out early,” he said. “But the team has got many dangerous players so we need to be at our very best to beat them.”
