Anwar, Javed push UAE to 129 against Sloppy Pakistan

Pakistan are all set to face United Arab Emirates in the 6th match at Shere Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur on Monday (today).

Both the players scored superb half-centuries, Shoaib Malik scored 63 runs off 69 and Umar scored 50 runs off 78 balls.

Umar Akmal (50*) and Shoaib Malik (63*) started off slowly realising the need to spend time at the wicket and grew bolder with every ball in the record-stand to see Pakistan home.

Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Irfan claimed two wickets each as Pakistan restricted the UAE to 129/6 before they reached 131/3 in 18.4 overs.

For UAE, Amjad Javed picked up all the three wickets but was expensive towards the end.

Shoaib Malik was awarded man of the match for his match-winning performance. Mohammad Hafeez (11), Sharjeel Khan (4) and Khurram Manzoor (0) were Javed’s victims as Pakistan were reduced to 17/3.

While Pakistan are a little hurt after losing to arch-rivals India by five wickets in a low-scoring encounter on Saturday, it is expected for them to be a cakewalk when Shahid Afridi’s boys take on the qualifiers in their second league encounter.

Shaiman Anwar made 46 off 42 balls for the UAE after the minnows suffered a similar collapse at the start of their innings. He had a brief 29 runs stand with Usman Mushtaq (9) before Afridi got rid of him but then a steady Mohammed Usman (21) joined him for a 31-run stand.

In all, Malik hit seven fours and three sixes in 49 balls while Akmal helped himself to couple of boundaries apart from three over boundaries in 46 balls. He shared impact with Akmal, and the pair methodically went about the chase – putting on 114 runs in a 15.3 overs. Skipper Amjad Javed also threw his bat around to contribute a valuable unbeaten 27 off 18 balls with three fours and two sixes.