CHENNAI: Shaheen Shah Afridi's all-round show (unbeaten 29 off 14 balls and 2/16 ) meant Pakistan emerged winners in their must-win contest against UAE and advanced to Super Fours of the ongoing Asia Cup here at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Wednesday. The victory also meant Pakistan will once again face India in their first Super Fours contest on Sunday at the same venue.
All eyes will be on the rematch between the two arch-rivals especially after the 'no handshake' row that erupted when Indian players refused to shake hands of their counterparts following their comprehensive win in the Group A league match on Sunday. It will be interesting to see what approach the Pakistan team adopts during the course of the match. There was also no handshake between the two captains at the toss.
Earlier, despite the pull out threat Pakistan showed up for a crucial game against the UAE but not before causing a delay and claiming that it received an "apology" from match referee Andy Pycroft, who was retained by the ICC despite the country's repeated demand for his removal.
However, their opener Saim Ayub got out for nought, his third in the row in the tournament, in the first over to give UAE a dream start. Pakistan-born pacer Junaid Siddique then made it two in his second over, third of the innings, to reduce opponents to 2/9.
The two quick wickets left captain Agha and Fakhar Zaman with no choice then to rebuild the innings even if that meant slowing down at times. The duo added 61 runs in the next eight overs before Agha was sent back by off spinner Dhruv Parashar for 20 off 27 balls. Fakhar, however, was still going strong and needed to carry his bat through the innings if his team wanted to put above-par total on the board. But that was not to be as the left-hand batter fell to left-arm spinner Simranjeet Singh with the scoreboard still reading 86/4 in 13.1 overs.
At one point of time Pakistan were precariously placed at 93/6 in the 16th over and were in danger of folding out before their quota of 20 overs but Shaheen Shah Afridi once again came to their rescue as he did against India the other night. He scored 29 off just 14 balls to give the much-needed momentum to the team's innings. His unbeaten quick knock was laced with three fours and two sixes and it eventually helped Pakistan to end their innings at 146/9. In the end, it proved more than enough as Pakistan bowled out UAE for 105 to win the match by 41 runs.
Brief scores: Pakistan 146/9 in 20 ovs (Fakhar 50, Shaheen 29 n.o; Siddique 4/18, Simranjeet 3/26) bt UAE 105 in 17.4 ovs (Chopra 35; Afridi 2/16, Rauf 2/19, Abrar 2/13).