January 30, 2013 at 5:54 p.m.
A batsman's pitch awaits Bermuda in UAE
Bermuda go into the clash with just 12-men to pick from after Lionel Cann was sent home for disciplinary reasons and Stephen Outerbridge and Kian Butterfield had to go home injured.
But UAE, who are also struggling in the four-day competition, need a win as badly as Bermuda.
The pitch at Abu Dhabi has been described as a batsman paradise by newly appointed UAE captain Saqib Ali.
And Ali is hoping his team will be able to kick Bermuda while they're down.
In an ICC press release yesterday, he said: "The boys have been playing club cricket but there is no replacement for international cricket.
"All of us want to make the best use of the Bermuda match.
"Obviously it goes to our advantage that we will be playing against a team which is low in confidence after a series of big defeats.
""But that doesn't mean we start under-estimating them. We will have to respect them and play as hard as possible.
"Complacency can be our biggest enemy and we have to avoid that situation."
It will be UAE's third match in the ICC Intercontinental Cup. Only 46 overs were possible in its opener against Scotland at Ayr while it lost by an innings and 228 runs to Canada in Toronto.
Ali admitted his team had learnt from the Canadian tour.
"We lost badly in Canada because we had traveled to Toronto with almost no practice and to compound our problems we played in alien conditions where the ball seamed and swung.
"However, Abu Dhabi is our home ground and the conditions are not new to us. We have played a lot of cricket here and I am sure we will be able to utilize the home advantage.
"However, the team that fields well will have an advantage because we have to hold every catch and convert half-chances when you playing in conditions that are more suited to batsmen," he added.
Bermuda squad: Irving Romaine (captain), David Hemp, Dwayne Leverock, Jekon Edness, James Celestine, Kevin Hurdle, Rodney Trott, Malachi Jones, Tamauri Tucker, Janeiro Tucker, Kyle Hodsoll, Azeem Pitcher.
UAE squad: Saqib Ali (captain), Javed Ismail, Abdul Rehman, Ahmed Raza, Alawi Shukri, Arshad Ali, Gayan Silva, Irfan Ahmed, Naeemuddin Aslam, Owais Hameed, Rohan Mustafa, Shadeep Silva, Qassim Zubair, Kashif Khan.[[In-content Ad]]
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