Pakistan won their final group league match by 41 runs on Wednesday, easily defeating an inexperienced UAE batting line-up and securing a highly anticipated Super 4s rematch with India in the Asia Cup.
Salman Agha’s team went down and arrived for the game an hour late after Pakistan threatened to pull out following the disastrous handshake fiasco during the last match against India. To support what still appeared to be a modest total of 146 for 9, Shaheen Shah Afridi first hammered an undefeated 29 off 14 balls.
It becomes extremely difficult for Associate Nations to score more than 130 against Test-playing nations as the bowling quality significantly improves. The UAE was ultimately able to achieve just 105 in 17.4 overs.
Playing on, Alishan Sharafu (12) found Afridi (2/16) too hot to handle. When UAE captain Muhammad Waseem (14) attempted to get a wide leg-break from Abrar Ahmed (2/13 in 4 overs), he moved for a leg-stump, which led to a spectacular sprinting catch by Mohammed Nawaz.
Muhammad Zohaib was subsequently bowled by Saim Ayub (1/18 in 4 overs), who has taken more wickets than runs in this competition thus far, with a straight quick delivery that remained slightly low. Even when the asking rate skyrocketed, Rahul Chopra (35 off 35 balls) did his best, but he was never able to get the big shots going.
Despite a strong bowling performance for the most of the game, the UAE never appeared to be in contention.
Pacer Junaid Siddique and left-arm spinner Simranjeet Singh, who was born in Ludhiana, bowled brilliantly, but Pakistan’s late-order onslaught put them in a do-or-die last group league match at 146/9.
In one of the UAE’s greatest bowling performances in recent memory against a Test-playing country, Simranjeet (3/26 in 4 overs) and Junaid (4/18) split the majority of the spoils.
Pakistan’s top order once again failed, with the exception of senior-pro Fakhar Zaman (50 off 36 balls). Instead, Mohammed Haris (18) and Shaheen Shah Afridi (29 no off 14 balls) successfully used the long-handle to get them to a respectable score.
At the beginning, Sahibzada Farhan’s (5) pick-up shot went horribly wrong, and Junaid dismissed Saim Ayub for his second consecutive duck. Simranjeet’s deliveries gripped and bounced in the middle overs, causing the ball to pause and come on to the batters. Fakhar was dismissed by one such delivery as he tried to check the drive.
Mohammed Nawaz fell to an arm ball, with Simranjeet marking the dismissal by celebrating with a ‘Sidhu Moosewala’-style thigh slap. Shaheen’s late hitting then pushed the total closer to 150 — a target that ultimately proved beyond UAE’s reach.
