Gaji
Kenya and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will assemble in the first round of ICC Intercontinental Cup on Thursday (28 July 2011) in Nairobi.
Kenya’s new captain Collins Obuya will be most important a new-look side for the Africans for this tournament with a digit of new faces mixed with some old-hands.
UAE will be making a go back to the competition; having last year compete in and reach the final of the ICC Intercontinental Shield, and Khurram Khan’s men will want a physically powerful start to its new campaign.
Captain Obuya said: “It has been a while since we played UAE but they have a very experienced side in contrast to our younger, newer squad.
“We last hosted them for one-day matches and we are challenge to their bowling attack which is strong and tends to win matches for them, particularly on spinner-friendly wickets. They might have played in the I-Shield last year but they will sure give us a hard challenge.”
“To some degree we have home advantage because we are used to pitch conditions while the climate here is very different from the UAE thus playing a key role to our game plan. We must exploit the home benefit point to garner first points for this round of the contest,” added the 29-year-old all-rounder.
“We’ve all been training hard in front of this fixture and would have also been in a team camp before the fixture so I think we’ll be well ready for taking on the UAE.
“We are coming off playing the shorter version of the game and so the longer version will need a lot more energy and attentiveness and we will need to be at our best to register first win in the Intercontinental Cup competition this year,” he finished.
The UAE side has some recognizable faces to Associate cricket in the form of bowler Nasir Aziz while Saqib Ali leads a strong batting line-up along with the like of captain Khurram Khan.
Khan said: “Having played quite a lot of 20-over cricket in the past months we have now turned our concentration to the longer format and have been working hard in front of this first I Cup fixture.
“Everyone in the side is very happy, we’ve had some good performance in the recent times but we need to do better in the format and we’re certainly looking forward to returning to playing with the red ball.”
“We’ve seen Kenya play before but we’re a strong side and will be ready for whatever challenges they offer to us. We do have a strong spin attack but at the same time our fast bowlers, Amjad Javed and Shoaib Sarwar help gives us a impartial side.
“We have a strong team which is very mature and I consider if we remain committed and listening carefully we can do well in this match and beyond,” added the 40-year-old all-rounder.
Ahead of the ICC Intercontinental Cup match, the sides split a two-match 50-over series 1-1. Kenya won the gap match on Monday by 66 runs (D/L method), before the UAE claim a four-wicket victory on Tuesday.
Kenya squad: Collins Obuya (captain); Rakep Patel; Tanmay Mishra; Runish Gudka; Hiren Varaiya; Lucas Oluoch; Dominic Wesonga; Karen Kaul; Amit Shukla; Rajesh Bhudia; Rajesh Varsani; Ramesh Mepani; Mansukh Jesani (wicket keeper); Samarth Patel
UAE squad: Khurram Khan (captain); Mohammed Touqir; Arshad Ali; Saqib Ali; Abdul Rehman; Ahmed Raza; Amjad Javed; Shadeep Silva; Amjad Ali; Shaiman Anwar; Nasir Aziz; Shoaib Sarwar; Wasim Bari; Palekar Hamid.
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