UAE captain Muhammad Waseem: ‘We knew we could do it if we believed in ourselves’

Twenty-three days ago, the UAE were bowled out for 71 on a pancake flat pitch in Kathmandu, their lowest one-day international score ever. In terms of on-field performances, it might well have been the country’s cricketing nadir.

They were in a tailspin that had no obvious end point. Any aspirations they had of making it to the next phase of World Cup qualifying felt entirely fanciful. A loss of all the privileges that go with having ODI status seemed like a given. All appeared hopeless.

How times change. A little over three weeks later, they are a side transformed. Their ongoing participation in ODI cricket was guaranteed in absentia on a portentous day in Namibia, as results went their way on the penultimate day of the Cricket World Cup Qualifier Play-off.

They can even look ahead to measuring themselves against the likes of former World Cup champions West Indies and Sri Lanka, too, after winning through to the global Qualifier in Zimbabwe this summer.

Typically for an ICC pathway competition, there was widespread confusion over what the results of Tuesday’s matches actually meant. So much so, that even hours after the completion of the games, many of the UAE players were unaware they had accomplished both their missions.

First, Namibia had thumped Canada by 111 runs at Wanderers in Windhoek. It meant the home team went level on six points with the UAE, having completed all five of their matches.

Confusingly, the result also put the Namibians into second place in the table on the metric of net run-rate, which has been used to decide ties in competitions so often in the past, behind United States.

The USA will top the group, having moved to eight points with a 25-run victory over Jersey, who are the UAE’s opponents on