Niall O' Brien clearly relishes playing against the UAE - his highest score of 176 came against them in this competition in 2005. How did he feel he had batted today? "It was hard work early on. I found the wicket difficult to adapt to, particularly in the first hour, before you get in. It's a bit two paced, so every run we can get ahead in the first innings will be vital."

"I've been a bit ill over the past day, but I've been on tablets and special drinks and I've managed to get through it to the end. I missed out on the game here last year when all the records were broken, so it's great to score a hundred today."

"My plan was to get the head down and bat as long as I could, and although I've had a bit of luck at the end, I'm still there. We've got plenty of batting still to come with Kyle (Mc Callan), Dave Langford-Smith and Greg Thompson, so we can get even more of a lead."

On his record partnership with Trent Johnston, O'Brien said, "It's nice to bat with someone who scores so freely. It took the pressure to score off me a lot. He told me to stay there and bat along with the lower order in the morning. I don't see why we can't get another 100 runs, so if we can get over 200 ahead and give ourselves 4 or 5 sessions to bowl them out."