UAE bowler Aryan Lakra believes that his team, which has lost both Group A games in the first round of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, needs to come up with good plans and execute them to the best against Namibia at Kardinia Park on Thursday.
“Definitely Namibia has been playing some good cricket, upsetting Sri Lanka, but at the end of the day, it’s the game of cricket. The team which plays better cricket is going to win. We have played against Namibia so we know their batters and bowlers. It’s all about coming up with a good plan and trying to execute it to its best,” said Lakra in the pre-match press conference.
UAE had recently played against Namibia five times in August when they played a two-match ODI series. Thursday’s match holds great importance for Namibia: a win against the UAE will get them to the Super 12 stage of the tournament.
Lakra, the left-arm spinner who has played two ODIs and five T20Is since being handed debuts in August this year, is relishing the exposure of playing against the big teams like the Netherlands and Sri Lanka in the T20 World Cup though results haven’t gone their way and promised that UAE will learn, improve and cause upset victories in future.
“Definitely I think it was a great honor presenting the country in a World Cup, and I know the result didn’t go our way, but definitely a lot of things to learn, and a lot of things to take back from this tournament, and hopefully we come back strong the next time.”
“Games against top opposition is always a good learning curve for the team, and as a side, we have shown that we can compete with them because there have been phases when we have been completely dominating the game.”
“I think it comes down to experience because they have more experience than us so they know how to finish games, they know how to come back on top when they are not in a position to win. That’s just something we’ll learn the more games we play as a squad, and hopefully, in the near future we can start causing those big upsets.”
UAE’s moment of high came in their match against Sri Lanka when leg-spinner Karthik Meiyappan became the first player from the country to take a T20I hat-trick, also becoming the first player from the Associate Nations to do so in T20 World Cup.
Lakra has been friends with Meiyappan for a long time, including being on the U19 side together. They are also joined on the senior side by fellow friends from the U19 days Alishan Sharafu and Vriitya Aravind.
“Definitely that was surreal for any of us because the four of us, we have been playing cricket together for so long, so if anyone does well, we all feel proud, and definitely a hat trick in a World Cup against a Test-playing nation is a huge deal, and we couldn’t be happier for him.”
“We have been talking about it all night and we still cannot believe it. We are just so happy that a friend of ours who we have seen grow through the ranks, who we have seen as 14 years old, growing to be a 20-year-old, getting a hat trick in a World Cup, that’s definitely a huge deal, and we are really, really happy for him.”
