United Arab Emirates vs Afghanistan 2014, 3rd ODI at Dubai: UAE aim to seal series with win

By Ankur Dhawan

Dec 1, 2014

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United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Afghanistan, the two underdogs in international cricket, resume their battle in the third game of the four-match One-Day international (ODI) series. UAE have taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series by virtue of winning the second ODI in Dubai.

UAE have had the wood over Afghanistan in the first two ODIs. Captain Khurram Khan has been in sterling form, with a fifty and a match winning hundred in the first and second ODIs respectively. It seldom happens that a player from an associate nation conquers the record books. The UAE skipper, though, achieved a unique feat in international cricket. He became the oldest captain to score an international hundred besides being the oldest player to score a ton in ODI history. He has been the source of inspiration behind UAE’s recent success.

UAE will endeavour to close out the series in the third ODI against Afghanistan to keep the winning momentum going in run up to the World Cup to be held next year. In fact, the series has been kind to both captains, with the Afghanistan skipper Nawroz Mangal also having registered a fifty and a ton in the series but his teams failed to take advantage of his good form. The two captains are neck and neck in terms of aggregate runs for the series.

The third ODI is Afghanistan’s final opportunity to salvage something significant from the series because a loss in the third ODI will not leave them with a lot apart from pride to play for in the final ODI.  Afghanistan’s popularity and reputation had grown after their victory over Bangladesh in the Asia Cup. They are vying for test status by the year 2018 but their chances and public perception continue to take a beating with these insipid performances against teams they are expected to beat. They will hope to put one across their hosts UAE to keep the series alive and try and gather some momentum before the upcoming World Cup.

Squads:

UAE: Amjad Ali, Andri Berenger, Saqib Ali, Khurram Khan (c), Swapnil Patil (wk) , Mohammad Shahzad, Krishnachandran Karate, Shaiman Anwar, Amjad Javed, Manjula Guruge, Salman Farooq, Ahmed Raza, Faizan Asif, Fayyaz Ahmed, Kamran Shazad, Mohammad Naveed, Mohammad Tauqir, Nasir Aziz, Saqlain Haider

Afghanistan: Usman Ghani, Nawroz Mangal, Afsar Zazai (wk), Mohammad Nabi (c), Samiullah Shenwari, Asghar Stanikzai, Gulbadin Naib, Hamid Hassan, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Shapoor Zadran, Dawlat Zadran, Dawlat Ahmedzai, Javed Ahmadi, Najibullah Zadran, Izatullah Dawlatzai, Mirwais Ashraf, Nasir Jamal, Shafiqullah Shafiq, Aftab Alam, Farid Malik

Time: 11:30 IST | 06:00 GMT

(Ankur Dhawan is a reporter with CricketCountry. Heavily influenced by dystopian novels, he naturally has about 59 conspiracy theories for every moment in the game of cricket. On finding a direct link between his head and the tip of his fingers, he also writes about it)