Representing the UAE in the elite Twenty20 college tournament, Singh’s troops were unable to advance to the knockouts after losses to host nation Sri Lanka and Pakistan before a consolation victory over India in their final match.
It was the second consecutive year Heriot-Watt was knocked out of the tournament at this stage but there were individual performances of note that would have encouraged the Dubai-based team.
Former UAE Under-19 international Chirag Suri struck two half-centuries, to finish as his team’s top run-scorer with 131 runs. With the ball, Muqueet Butt and Usman Munir finished with five and four wickets respectively.
And Singh was encouraged by what he saw over the past week.
“We were very competitive and were on top of the opponents in all three games in different stages of the match,” said the 22-year-old batsman.
“Against Pakistan, our fielding cost us the game even though we fought back. Then Shehan Jayasuriya played an extraordinary innings (101) and took the game away against Sri Lanka, while our bowlers did exceptionally well in the India game.
“There’s a little difference between us and the other teams but if we had executed our skills well enough, we could’ve done really well. I truly believe we could have reached the semi-finals this time as we were on top of our opponents many times during all the games.”
Singh highlighted two familiar areas that needed improvement if they want to progress further in world events.
“Fitness and fielding are very important as it keeps the pressure on the opponents at all times,” said the former UAE U-19 skipper.
“We also have to learn how to rotate strike and hit boundaries but this can only be done by us working hard individually.
“What we have learnt is that there are no short cuts to success. You need to work hard and put in those hours of work on improving your skills. Thinking big, being positive and working hard relentlessly is the key. We performed much better compared to last year and the gap is slowly reducing.”
Heriot-Watt beat eight sides in the UAE to book their ticket to Sri Lanka and Singh hopes they can qualify for the 2017 edition.
“It’s a really exciting tournament. It’s very well organised and we deserve to be here,” he said. “We have gained a lot of respect over the past few days by match officials and players. We would love to come back and perform next year as well.”