Stumps for souvenirs as UAE sign off Qualifier Play-off success with win over Jersey

It said a lot about how much the Cricket World Cup Qualifier Play-off meant to UAE cricket that Karthik Meiyappan ambled off the field at its conclusion with a souvenir stump in his possession.

Ostensibly, this was a third-tier competition between a group of sides beyond cricket’s mainstream. The UAE had just completed a relatively comfortable victory against Jersey, in a game that actually had nothing tangible riding on it in the end.

And Meiyappan is a cricketer who has taken a hat-trick in a World Cup. The 22-year-old leg-spinner had only two other souvenir stumps in his career collection so far.

One from that momentous night at the T20 World Cup when he took three in three against mighty Sri Lanka in Geelong. The other from when the UAE snuck past Nepal to make it to the Under-19 World Cup at a competition in Malaysia.

And yet this tournament has meant so much to UAE cricket, and it stood to reason that one of its young gems wanted something to remember it by.

A day earlier, they had accomplished their mission without even playing a game. Results in other fixtures conspired to send them through to the global Qualifier in Zimbabwe, where they will play for one of the two places on offer for the main event in India later this year. In the process, they retained one-day international playing privileges.

All of which meant the final game, against Jersey, was little more than a valedictory tour. The side from the Channel Islands showed they are an emerging team of talent, but the UAE eventually dispatched them with a 66-run win.

Meiyappan picked up four for 57 as Jersey were bowled out for 218, then grabbed that stump.

“It is because we qualified and because the situation we were in coming to Namibia was pretty tough for