Malik, Akmal Fifties Lead Pakistan to win

Dhaka: A unbeaten 114-run partnership between Malik (63*, off 49-balls) and Umar Akmal (50*, off 46-balls) lift Pakistan 7-wicket win against UAE at Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur on Monday.

Pakistan have won the sixth match of Asia Cup 2016 played against UAE by seven wickets. UAE won the toss and decided to bat first but could only score 129 in their allotted 20 overs; they lost six wickets.

UAE started poorly losing both their openers— Rohan Mustafa and Muhammad Kaleem for just a run each. Mohammad Shahzad, who came one-down could score only five runs before Sahaiman Anwar gave them some hope.

Anwar was cruising along well before Mohammad Irfan sent him back to the pavilion for 46. Besides him, only three more UAE batsmen could get to double digits viz. Muhammad Usman, Amjad Javed and Mohammad Naveed.

In reply, Pakistan faced a few hiccups at the start of their innings. They lost their top three batsmen when the scoreboard read just 17.

Amjad Javed picked up all the three wickets that fell. Umar Akmal and Shoaib Malik then made a -run fourth-wicket stand.

They took Pakistan to a decent position at 84 for 3 after the end of 15 overs needing 46 more runs from 30 balls to win the match. Shoaib Malik got to his half century with a six over deep mid-wicket off Rohan Mustafa’s bowling on the second ball of the 17th over.

The match became very interesting at the end as Pakistan required 27 runs from the final three overs. They were the favourites to win at that moment but considering UAE had bowled so very well in the tournament, an upset could not be ruled out at that point of the match.

However, Akmal had different intentions in his mind as he hit a four, six and four in consecutive deliveries of Amjad Javed. He ended the over with another six as 23 runs came of it. Pakistan then needed only four runs from 12 balls; a cakewalk for them. They reached the target with eight balls remaining.

Brief scores
United Arab Emirates - 129 for 6 (Shaiman Anwar 46, Amir 2-6, Irfan 2-30)
Pakistan - 131 for 3 (Malik 63*, Umar 50*, Amjad Javed 3-36)
Result - Pakistan won by 7 wickets
Points - Pakistan 2, United Arab Emirates 0
MOM - Shoaib Malik (Pakistan)

Scores	Upcoming	Results
South Africa vs Pakistan - 3rd ODI 4th Test - Australia v India - December 26-30, 23:30 GMT 1st Test - Zimbabwe v Afghanistan - December 26-30, 07:30 GMT 3rd ODI - Zimbabwe v Afghanistan at Harare Afghanistan won by 8 wickets (with 139 balls remaining) 3rd T20I - West Indies v Bangladesh at St Vincent Bangladesh won by 80 runs

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