'Minus Malinga, we could've won this game' - Aaqib Javed

No one would be surprised if Shere Bangla Stadium has sunk a few inches into the ground since the time it was built, bearing the weight of tens of thousands of people every time Bangladesh play. Today, though, there were vast pockets of empty seats and if the stadium could sigh in relief, it would have been heard as loud as thunder. It was perhaps the best representation of the kind of cricket expected from UAE against Sri Lanka.

Most people were behind Afghanistan to make it to the main round out of the four-team qualifying group that included Oman, Hong Kong and UAE. Others were clamouring over Nepal's absence from the entire tournament.

But UAE slipped through under the radar, playing their best cricket since February 2014 when they finished second at the World Cup Qualifier in New Zealand. They swept the Asia Cup qualifying tournament and seemed to have found new batsmen who had the potential to take over key roles.

They began to dream, they began to hope, they even forced Sri Lanka to plummet to their lowest ever total against an Associate nation in T20Is. With another 15 runs, they could have had their first ever win against a Test nation in 17 tries.

"If you can restrict a good team like Sri Lanka under 130, you want to win that game. You want to create history," UAE captain Amjad Javed said. "It was a really good chance." He himself had been at the forefront, laying the foundation for an upset.

Dinesh Chandimal was on a hot streak again, not quite Galle-ish, but still every ghoulish slog kept finding the boundary. He has lasted longer than 25 balls in only four of his 29 innings in T20Is, an indicator as to why his average is 15.96. UAE could only dismiss him after he got to 50 off 38 balls and Javed was the one who did the trick. Two more Javed abracadabras later, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Milinda Siriwardana vanished as Sri Lanka slipped from 79 for 1 to 105 for 5.

As dramatic as that slide looks, it was fashioned from the simplest plans. Javed is known for getting extra bounce. In fact his height was the reason why then UAE coach Chandika Hathursinghe turned him away from offspin and towards fast bowling. The idea was to dig it in, the leg-side boundary was beefed up. Dilshan found deep square leg in the 10th over, Siriwardana found deep midwicket in the 12th.

Having let Sri Lanka score briskly in the early stages to reach 68 for 0 after nine overs, UAE kept every batsman from No. 3 to a score of 10 or below doing nothing more than capitalising on mistakes. Angelo Mathews premeditated a reverse sweep and paid for it. Shehan Jayasuriya was bowled trying to scoop UAE's fastest bowler Mohammad Naveed and Chamara Kapugedera was caught off a full toss.

But none of that mattered to the eventual scoreline because of UAE's inexperience at the top level. Lasith Malinga inspired his team with two wickets in his first over and they responded with four more by the time the chase was halfway through. UAE were 47 for 6 and Sri Lanka's 129 for 8 suddenly seemed bulletproof.

"We discussed [Malinga's] bowling, his style and everything, but I think he is the kind of bowler, if you haven't faced him, can hurt you really hard and that's what happened," coach Aaqib Javed told ESPNcricinfo. "We discussed it again and again and again, 'just don't give him wickets early, then we'll be through' but the way he varied the pace, first ball right on money, he's so accurate."

Dejection was on the faces of the outgoing UAE batsmen. Sympathy on the incoming one as consolatory pats on the back were offered. Their top order had weathered the challenge posed by Oman's seamers on a greenish pitch on Monday, but Sri Lanka were a completely different proposition.

Rohan Mustafa was beaten by Malinga's pace and swing first ball and Mohammad Shahzad for Malinga's lack of pace and dip second ball. Then it all unravelled. Muhammad Kaleem was dropped in the second over, but popped a catch to mid-off in the fourth. Three balls later, Mohammad Usman hurtled down the track to slog at Nuwan Kulasekara and was caught at slip.

Like a fashion show for amateurish batting, one after the other, with barely minutes in between, UAE's top order came, saw, panicked and went.

"When we expect our players to do well, it's frankly at the Associate level," Aaqib said. "I think on pitches like this, batting is so hard. Even players who have been in international cricket for more than 15 years were struggling here. You can't criticise them more than what they deserve. I think it's a morale-boosting game. Now they think, 'oh, minus Malinga, we could've won this game'."