Women's Asia Cup a great learning experience for UAE, says Esha Oza

The results may not have gone in their favour, but Esha Oza said the Women's Asia Cup has been a great learning experience for the young UAE team.

The UAE lost to Pakistan by 71 runs in Sylhet, Bangladesh, on Sunday — their fourth defeat in the tournament with their lone victory coming against Malaysia.

But Oza said getting a chance to play against top teams like India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will help the young UAE women's cricketers improve their game.

"We started at the qualifying tournament in Malaysia earlier this year. That was a pretty good tournament for us. We won that tournament to qualify to play this tournament. Then coming here (Bangladesh) and playing against these very experienced teams, maybe we are not doing the best we can do, but we are definitely learning a lot through this," Oza said in a video shared by the Asian Cricket Council.

"I think experience is the main difference (between teams like UAE and Pakistan). We are a very young side. Our average age is 20.

"We had only played against the associate teams in the past. This is the first time we are playing ICC full member nations. I think this experience is going to help us a lot."

Pakistan too strong

After being put into bat, Pakistan made 145 for five in 20 overs on the back of Aliya Riaz's unbeaten 57 off just 36 balls (5 fours, 3 sixes) on Sunday.

While Riaz was named player of the match for her brilliant half century, opener Muneeba Ali also played a crucial knock of 43.