Bermuda opener Chris Foggo has urged his team-mates to keep their heads up after a lacklustre first day of their Intercontinental Shield match against United Arab Emirates.

The hosts were skittled out for a meagre 56 runs before being tortured in the sun by UAE for the remainder of the opening day of the four-day match.

Foggo, who scored 29, more than half of the 56 runs Bermuda got, believes the shellshocked Bermuda players must now put their first day failures behind them.

"It was a battle from the beginning and we as a team showed a little bit of inexperience early on, we seemed to have jitters and it showed with the score we put up," said Foggo.

"We need to keep our heads up and realise this is a rebuilding phase in our cricket and try to take any positives we can out of the match.

"When we get a chance to bat again we must apply ourselves and try to do better than the performance in the first innings."

The Devonshire Rec. batsman could only watch helplessly as partners came and went at regular intervals throughout the yesterday's morning session.

Although UAE are known for their spin threat it was their seamers which ripped out Bermuda's top order to expose their soft underbelly.

Foggo described his team's batting display as "disheartening" and said they should have been more than capable of coping with UAE's pace attack.

"I was disappointed with how we handled the pace attack, because we should be able to deal with what came at us, but we seemed to lack concentration and application." he said.

"By the time the spinners came on a lot of our top bat were already out so it was a challenge the whole way through.

"It was disappointing because we should be able to play pace on that wicket.

"I consider myself semi-professional and have faced faster and better bowlers than today. I tried to settle in and play a role but it's disheartening when your partners are falling at regular intervals."