Improved Oman go down fighting

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">MUMBAI: 1996 World Cuppers UAE, coached by India allrounder Abid Ali, staved off a spirited challenge from Sandeep Patil - coached Oman before beating them by 94 runs to score a hat-trick of wins in the 5th Asian Cricket Council trophy in Kuala Lumpur. </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Oman have been insisting on playing homegrown players and spurned the temptation to play their imports like Deep Jaywant from Mumbai, who is doing well in the local league for the Khimji sides.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Scores: UAE 253 (Arshad Ali 77, Maqsood n.o.67, Hemal Mehta 3-38) beat Oman 159 (Hemal Mehta 39 Ali Assad 4-38).</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Following are the features of the tournament.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">1.All four semi-finalists were gulf sides. Kuwait and Qatar were the other two.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">2.Bayuemas Oval was a new arena tried out.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">3.Kuala Lumpur had 11 days of uninterrupted cricket matches, something unheard of in tropical Malaysia - where the weather is unpredictable but highly definable - eight centuries in the run-up to the final.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">4.There were four five-wicket hauls including a hat-trick by Hemin Desai from Oman.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">5.UAE, who will be playing the Asia Cup in July, completed a hat-trick. They are the only team to have featured in all editions of the ACC Trophy.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">They registered three 10-wicket wins in the preliminaries. Their batsmen scored nearly 1200 runs in four games.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">6.The opening pair was brilliant Arshad Ali had scores of 128, 118,77 and Asim Saeed 111, 70 and 66 n.o. Their bowlers and fielders too have supported well when they dismissed three teams under 120 runs.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">7. Oman topped their group which included past finalists Hong Kong, Bahrain and newcomers Afghanistan.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">ACC squad to tour Sri Lanka</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Suresh Navaratnam and Rohan Vishnu Suppiah (Malaysia), Arshad Ali (UAE), Asim Saeed (UAE), Khalid Butt (Kuwait), Omer Taj (Qatar), Hemin Desai (Qatar), Nawroz Khan (Afghanistan), Sultan Ahmed (Oman), Sujith Rolegora (Qatar), Azmatullah (Kuwait), Qamar Sadiq (Qatar), Raj Kumar (Kuwait), Ali Assad (UAE), Mehboob Shah (Bepal) and Khuram Khan (UAE). </span><br /></div> </div>