Tauqir pays tribute to batting hero Anwar

2015 World Cup

UAE captain Mohammad Tauqir paid tribute to team-mate Shaiman Anwar who, remarkably, became the leading run-scorer at this year's World Cup when he struck 62 against Pakistan in Napier on Wednesday.

Anwar has now scored 270 runs in the tournament so far, after two fifties and one century in the four matches that he has played. He ha more runs than some of the world's best batsman, including AB de Villiers, Kumar Sangakkara and Brendon McCullum.

Batting at number five in the batting order, Anwar had scores of 67 against Zimbabwe, 106 versus Ireland and 35 against India before the Pakistan encounter. Tauqir said he and his team-mates have given Anwar the nickname of 'Sir Viv', in reference to legendary West Indies batsman Sir Viv Richards.

Tauqir said: "Anwar's doing very well in the team and he's such a confident individual that we call him 'Sir Viv' in the dressing room – that's his nickname.

"Today he probably missed a hundred. If he could have stayed till the end he would have scored 90 to 100 runs, but it's still an excellent performance. He's a brilliant batsman and I'm very happy for him."

The UAE lost the match comfortably, by 129 runs, but Tauqir said they would take huge confidence from the fact that they were not bowled out by Pakistan and batted their full 50 overs. The UAE scored 210 for eight.

He said: "Playing 50 overs against Pakistan is a big positive for the team. Our effort is to do well against the Test nations. In batting, we should do our basics right and play all 50 overs."

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