Half-centuries from Travis Head and Tim Ludeman condemned the UAE to a 103-run loss to South Australia’s Redbacks in their High Performance Programme (HPP) tour match yesterday.

The Australians posted 271-8 thanks to Head’s 67-ball knock off 71, while Ludeman smashed 69. UAE bowlers Mohammad Naveed, Amjad Javed and Mohammad Shahzad claimed two wickets each at the Marrara Cricket Ground in Darwin.

The UAE never really got any partnerships going and were reeling at 99-8, losing five wickets for 21 runs. They were eventually bowled out for 168 with Andri Berrenger top-scoring with 34. Fast-medium bowlers Kane Richardson and Daniel Worrall finished with figures of 3-33 and 3-15 respectively.

Yesterday’s result ended UAE’s two-match winning streak, and captain Khurram Khan felt his team committed the same errors as in their previous three defeats.

He said: “We did reasonably well with the bowling early on in the innings. And then from the 40th over we gave the game away. I thought 220 was a good target to chase but the bowling was not up to the mark.

“We didn’t bowl to our strengths and that gave the Redbacks the advantage.”

On the batting performance which saw only three batsmen reach double figures, the 43-year-old said: “We started off really well batting and we just couldn’t get any partnerships going and lost a few wickets that slowed the innings.