The bowling coach of the Indian cricket team, Morne Morkel, commended his side's bowlers for their outstanding performance against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in their Asia Cup 2025 opening match on Wednesday, pointing out that their concentrated pregame preparation paid off.
While chasing just 58 runs in their Asia Cup campaign opener in Dubai, India demonstrated their supremacy by easily defeating the UAE by nine wickets on their home field. India chased down the target in just 4.3 overs, with Abhishek Sharma scoring 30 in 16 balls and Shubman Gill making 20* in 9 balls.
Earlier, Kuldeep Yadav had taken 4/7, and Shivam Dube surprised with three wickets for four runs as UAE lost their last eight wickets for just 10 runs, getting bowled out for 57.
In a video posted by BCCI on social media, Morkel said, “Yeah, a very solid start by the boys with the ball tonight. We haven’t played a lot of white-ball cricket for a while, so I thought that leading into the game, our preparation was very focused. I think that is one thing that we did exceptionally well."
Finding the players' rhythm, bringing great energy, and displaying powerful body language were the main topics of his pre-game talks with them, according to Morkel.
"I think that was our conversation going into the game: to find our feet, put in a lot of energy, and bring a bit of body language when we have the ball in our hands, and yeah, we nailed the first half," he concluded.
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