Women’s Asia Cup: Deepti Sharma and India up next for UAE after Sri Lanka disappointment

Two days after a storm punctured their hopes of taking their biggest scalp to date, UAE’s women will be back in action at the Asia Cup in Bangladesh when they face India.

The vast majority of UAE’s players are of Indian origin. Even those who are not are well aware of the household names they will be up against in Sylhet.

The likes of Jemimah Rodrigues, who top scored in India’s opening day win, Smriti Mandhana and Deepti Sharma are heroes to many.

And yet the national team have some stars in the making of their own. Esha Oza, for example, holds records which India’s batters would envy.

The UAE opener has two T20I centuries to her name, the first of which is the second highest individual score – 158 not out - in the format among women.

She was also the fastest woman to 1,000 T20I runs, a record she did not just pinch, but obliterated. Her 31 matches was four faster than the next best, England great Charlotte Edwards.

Although she missed out in the opening game, an 11-run loss to Sri Lanka on Sunday, as she made just 4, she hinted at a return to form with a breezy 37 against United States last week.

“It was good confidence booster to have a good innings before going to another big tournament like the Asia Cup,” Oza said of that knock, in the last game of the T20 World Cup Qualifier in Abu Dhabi.

“In the previous few games I wasn’t playing as freely as I could. The game [against United States] gave me immense confidence, and to the entire team, too.

“To get a victory off the final ball again put everyone in good heart. We are feeling good, thinking, yes, we can win.

“We didn’t start that tournament as well as we wanted to, but we ended it well.”

Sylhet, BangladeshUAE resultsLost to Sri Lanka by 11 runsUAE fixturesTue Oct