India A faced United Arab Emirates A in their opening game of the ACC Men's Emerging Teams Asia Cup 2023 and registered a comfortable victory by eight wickets. It was a comprehensive performance from the India hopefuls with their skipper Yash Dhull smashing an impressive ton before Harshit Rana's four-wicket haul left UAE reeling after India invited them to bat.
Batting first for UAE A, only Aryansh Sharma, Valthapa Chidambaram and Mohammed Farazuddin put up a brilliant fight scoring 38, 46 and 35 runs respectively. The three batters immense composure to face a formidable Indian bowling attack and made sure their team batted for 50 overs. UAE posted 175 runs on the board for the loss of nine wickets in their 50 overs.
Harshit Rana made the ball talk right through the innings returning with the figures of 4/41 in his nine overs. Nitish Reddy and Manav Suthar were the other best bowlers for India A picking up two wickets each. Riyan Parag was the other economical bowler ending with 0/22 in his 8 overs and was unlucky not to get a wicket.
In response, India A were expected to gun down the total without much fuss. But UAE struck early with the ball with Sai Sudharsan getting out early. Abhishek Sharma also didn't hang around for long as India lost two wickets with only 41 runs on the board. This is when Nikin Jose joined hands with skipper Yash Dhull to rebuild the innings. The latter was the aggressor in the partnersghip and paced his innings nicely.
Dhull was class apart setting the standards for his batting smashing an unbeaten 108 runs off just 84 deliveries with a massive 20 fours and a six to his name. Jose played a perfect supporting hand from the other end mustering 41 runs off 53 balls with five fours. India chased down the target in the 27th over itself with eight wickets in hand. India A will next face Nepal in their second league game on July 17 while their marquee game against Pakistan scheduled on july 19.
