Young Berenger stars in team’s lone victory
Dubai: It was valuable experience for the World Cup-bound UAE team despite losing three of their four matches against Pakistan managed to win one.
Andri Berenger, a 23-year-old promising cricketer, steered UAE to victory in the first match of the series when he hit a mature 77 as an opener against a quality attack. Pakistan A’s international players like Shoaib Maqsood, Sharjeel Khan, Nasir Jamshed, Bilawal Bhatti and Babar Azam — fresh from his knock of unbeaten 114 against Australia — was forced to applaud Berenger’s knock.
Andri Berenger
Speaking to Gulf News, Berenger, who hails from Sri Lanka and had represented the island nation in the Under-19 World Cup in 2010, said: “It was a good experience to play against top-class Pakistan bowlers. They had a good combination of pace and spin and to score against a team made up of many international cricketers was indeed special. To help my team win made it even more special.”Berenger was born in UAE and used to score heavily in inter-school cricket in the emirates.
“I played for Grammar School and used to score well in the Dubai Cricket Council’s Al Rawabi inter-school cricket tournament. During that period, I got a scholarship to study in Sri Lanka and I got selected to play for Sri Lanka in Under-19 World Cup. Three years back, I came back and now I am employed with Danube. My dream is to score heavily in the coming World Cup,” said the youngster, who won the best batsman’s award in school cricket in 2004 here.
UAE won the first match by six wickets, but lost the second by four wickets. In the third, which UAE lost by 54 runs, Krishna Karate hit an unbeaten 52 while his skipper Khurram Khan scored 53.
In the fourth match, which Pakistan A won by 139 runs, UAE veterans Khurram and Shakib Ali scored 68 and 52 respectively.