ECB stun USA in world qualifiers warm-up match

The Emirates Cricket Board (Blues) team pulled off a stunning five-wicket victory over the United States of America (USA) in an International Cricket Council (ICC) Twenty20 World Cup qualifiers warm-up match at the Al Dhaid cricket village on Thursday. USA elected to bat first but lost their opener Steven Taylor for a duck, trapped leg before by Manjula. One-drop Aditya Mishra got run out for six runs. Skipper Sushil Nadkarni, who opened the batting for USA, batted brilliantly to crack and unbeaten 79 runs off 56 balls with five boundaries and five sixes. He got good support from Orlando Baker who hit 38 runs. Together they put on 85 runs for the third wicket before Baker was bowled by Azam for 38 runs. Chasing the challenging USA's total of 142 for 4, ECB lost their opener Iqbal for 11 runs. One-drop Abdul Rahman and Safdar put 79 runs for the second wicket to put them on the road to victory. Though Abhimanyu Rajp struck twice to dismiss Safdar for 43 runs and Abdul Rahman for 34 runs, they could not prevent ECB from racing to victory. "More matches are being scheduled for domestic teams and matches are being arranged at Al Dhaid cricket village. The Sharjah Cricket Stadium is also being used for practice as well as net practices by the countries that are here to play in the ICC Twenty20 World Cup qualifiers," said Mazhar Khan, the Administrator of the ECB.