Preview: A hurt Pakistan are set to intimidate minnows United Arab Emirates with their four- pronged pace attack in a round robin league game of the Asia Cup Twenty20 cricket tournament, here on Monday.
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UAE needed another partnership to have a say in the match and Muhammad Usman (21 off 17) and skipper Javed (27 not out off 18) batted exactly as the situation demanded.
Talking about the key batsmen in both teams, Pakistan’s Mohammad Hafeez has played 72 T20 matches so far and smashed 1518 runs while Rohan Mustafa in UAE has hit 228 runs in 14 T20s until now. It was at that point that Shoaib Malik (63*) and Umar Akmal (50*)came together and defied the Associate Nation with a cracking 114-run partnership. Afridi had enough of spin, brought Mohammad Irfan back into the attack and Pakistan got a crucial breakthrough.
UAE’s Amjad Javed was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3 for 36.
Afridi also praised the way UAE recovered from the early jolts to take their score to 129. Sharjeel Khan (4) was given out lbw even as the replays showed the ball missing the stumps whereas Khurram Manzoor (0) was caught behind.
For Pakistan, Mohammed Amir gave away just 6 runs in his four overs while claiming 2 wickets.
Then Shoaib Malik and Umar Akmal came to rescue through steady batting and gradually took the charge. With 66 runs required from 42 balls, Malik hammered Naveed for a four while Akmal’s six in the same over swung the momentum in Pakistan’s favour.
UAE won the toss and opted to bat first.
Shoaib Malik’s unbeaten 63 fetched him the man of the match award. “We are making some mistakes and you can’t afford that against the bigger teams”, Afridi said after Pakistan picked up a seven wicket win over UAE.
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A 29-run stand between Usman Mushtaq (9) and Anwar (46) took UAE to 40 for three at the halfway mark. They made one change with Sialkot-born Usman Mushtaq coming into the XI in place of Saqlain Haider. He hit 3 sixes and 7 fours.
