A half century from Kevin O'Brien helped Ireland's cricketers to an emphatic 86 run win against local opposition in a warm-up game ahead of the Desert T20 competition.
O'Brien top scored with 54 and skipper William Porterfield hit 35 as the Irish made 144 for 8 in their 20 overs.
In reply there were two wickets apiece for the NW trio of Boyd Rankin. Craig Young and Stuart Thompson as the local Bukhatir XI side were skittled for just 58.
Teenager Josh Little was also among the wickets in a solid bowling display.
"It was great to get outdoors again after a long winter and into match practice," said O'Brien after the game.
"I was happy with how I played overall, but there a few areas to work on facing spin bowlers and we will look at doing that over the next few days.
"It was good to see the bowlers bowl and get miles into the legs. They all did some very good things with the ball albeit against a fairly average batting line up.
"We've just got to keep looking to put the hard yards in over coming days, improve the skill set in the group and hit the ground running against Afghanistan."
Ireland's first match in the T20 tournament is against Afghanistan in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.
| Home Side | Bukhatir XI |
| Comment | Ireland played 14: 11 batting and 11 fielding Bukhatir played 12: 11 batting ,11 fielding |
| Batsman | Fieldsman | Bowler | Runs | Bls | 4s | 6s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PR Stirling | c Ajay Kumar | b Mohammad Asif | 18 | 16 | 2 | 1 |
| SR Thompson | c&b Hanif Ullah | 6 | 8 | 1 | 0 | |
| WTS Porterfield* | c Rameez Abdul Karee | b Waheed Ahmed | 34 | 32 | 2 | 0 |
| KJ O'Brien | c Vishnu Sukumaran | b Waheed Ahmed | 54 | 43 | 4 | 1 |
| GC Wilson+ | c Vishnu Sukumaran | b Waheed Ahmed | 11 | 8 | 1 | 0 |
| GJ Thompson | c Hafeez Kaleem | b Waheed Ahmed | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| A Balbirnie | not out | 10 | 4 | 2 | 0 | |
| BJ McCarthy | c Ajay Kumar | b Mohammad Asif | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| WB Rankin | not out | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | |
| CA Young | dnb | |||||
| J Mulder | dnb | |||||
| extras | (b0 lb0 w0 nb1) | 1 | ||||
| TOTAL | 7 wickets for | 144 |
| FOW |
|---|
| Bowler | Overs | Maid | Runs | Wkts | wd | nb |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mohammad Asif | 4 | 0 | 34 | 2 | - | - |
| Hanif Ullah | 4 | 1 | 20 | 1 | - | - |
| Jastin James | 4 | 0 | 24 | 0 | - | - |
| Halan Mohd | 4 | 0 | 28 | 0 | - | - |
| Vishnu Sukumaran | 1 | 0 | 8 | 0 | - | - |
| Waheed Ahmed | 3 | 0 | 30 | 4 | - | - |
| Batsman | Fieldsman | Bowler | Runs | Bls | 4s | 6s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rameez Abdul Karee | c BJ McCarthy | b SR Thompson | 26 | 31 | 1 | 1 |
| Khalid Shah | b WB Rankin | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Hafeez Kaleem | c SR Thompson | b WB Rankin | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Zanal Nazar | c WTS Porterfield | b CA Young | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Vishnu Sukumaran | c A Balbirnie | b J Little | 2 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| Ajay Kumar | c GC Wilson | b J Little | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Vinu Vijayan | run out SR Thompson | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | |
| Waheed Ahmed | c WTS Porterfield | b J Mulder | 4 | 19 | 0 | 0 |
| Halan Mohd | c GC Wilson | b SR Thompson | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Mohammad Asif | not out | 6 | 26 | 1 | 0 | |
| Hanif Ullah | c&b CA Young | 5 | 7 | 0 | 0 | |
| extras | (b4 lb0 w6 nb2) | 12 | ||||
| TOTAL | 10 wickets for | 58 |
| FOW |
|---|
| Bowler | Overs | Maid | Runs | Wkts | wd | nb |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CA Young | 3.2 | 0 | 7 | 2 | 4 | - |
| WB Rankin | 2 | 1 | 8 | 2 | - | - |
| BJ McCarthy | 3 | 0 | 20 | 0 | - | - |
| J Little | 3 | 0 | 7 | 2 | - | 1 |
| J Mulder | 3 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 1 | - |
| SR Thompson | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | - | 1 |
| PR Stirling | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | - |