Dubai , 8 March 2008Captain Saqib Ali was a stroke away from his fourth first-class century but defending champion Ireland was on the verge of a clinical victory against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.
When the stumps were drawn for the third day’s play, the UAE, trailing Ireland by 246 runs on first innings, was 186-7 with Ali holding the fort on a gutsy 98.
In an innings that has already lasted 137 balls, Ali has hit 14 boundaries and two sixes. If the 29-year-old middle-order batsman reaches the magical figures on the fourth morning, it will be his fourth first-class century in nine matches.
However, the captain will rue the fact that on a good batting surface, none of the other home batsmen could give him useful support. Only Amjad Ali (23), Gayan Silva (16), Rashid Khan (17) and Zahid Shah (14 not out) managed to reach double figures.
Together with Shah, Ali has put on 59 runs for the unfinished eighth wicket stand which is easily the highest partnership of the innings.
While the home team batsmen lacked patience and application, Ireland bowlers stuck to their guns and bowled to a teasing line and length to draw the batsmen into false strokes.
Off-spinner Kyle McCallan was the pick of Ireland bowlers with figures of 18-6-65-3 while Alex Cusack claimed 2-10. Andre Botha and Trent Johnston shared the other two wickets.
With the UAE still behind by 60 runs with three wickets standing, including the wicket of Nizel Fernandes who is unlikely to bat after requiring three stitches on his left wrist while attempting a catch on Saturday morning, Ireland is all set to coast to a comfortable victory which will accomplish its target of collecting 20 maximum points from this match which will help it leapfrog Namibia (48 points) and the Netherlands (34 points) into second place.
Kenya leads the points table with 66 but it has played one more match than Ireland .
Earlier, Ireland resumed its second innings on 366-7 in reply to UAE’s 228 and was bowled out for 474 runs after adding 108 runs on the penultimate day.
Niall O’Brien, who began the day on 137, fell to Sameer Zia after scoring a magnificent 174 but failed to break Eoin Morgan’s all-time record individual score for Ireland by 35 runs. Morgan had set the record of 209 at this very venue in this competition last year.
The 26-year-old from Dublin , who played for Kent and Northamptonshire last year in the county championship, also failed to improve his career-best score of 176 which he scored against the same opposition in Windhoek , Namibia in this competition in 2005.
Brien batted for 468 minutes during which he received 293 deliveries. His innings included 23 excellently executed boundaries.
In association with McCallan, Brien put on 77 runs for the eighth wicket. While the partnership ended with the dismissal of Brien, McCallan continued and returned undefeated on 52, an innings that lasted 107 balls and included six boundaries.
For the UAE, Saqib Ali bagged 3-84 while Ahmed Raza, Sameer Zia and Zahid Shah took two wickets each.
The ICC Intercontinental Cup has quickly grown in stature and profile since its inception three years ago and now ICC's premier first-class tournament is an integral part of the Associate Members’ cricket schedule.
Having previously been designed around a two-group, three-day format, the event has evolved into an eight-team, round-robin and truly global tournament featuring four-day cricket which gives those teams which do not play Test cricket the chance to experience the longer form of the game.
Scotland won the first ICC Intercontinental Cup in 2004, beating Canada in the final, while Ireland has been victorious in both events since then, beating Kenya in the 2005 decider and Canada in the 2006-07 event.
The final of the ICC Intercontinental Cup 2007-08 will take place in November 2008 at a venue yet to be decided.
-ICC MEDIA RELEASE