Debutants shine to take UAE to four-wicket victory
Imran Haider and Zahoor Khan restricted Scotland to 173, before Adnan Mufti hit an unbeaten 43 to take them past the target
ESPNcricinfo staff
24-Jan-2017
UAE 176 for 4 (Usman 45, Mufti 43, Davey 2-17, Sharif 2-24) beat Scotland 173 (Berrington 50, Zahoor 3-17, Haider 3-36) by four wickets
Scorecard
Scorecard
A 62-run stand for the fifth wicket between Muhammad Usman and debutant Adnan Mufti helped a UAE side, playing with five new caps, overcome a top-order collapse and defeat Scotland by four wickets in Dubai.
While they did well recovering from 39 for 4, the fact that they had only 174 to chase came in handy and they had the debutant legspinner Imran Haider and left-arm spinner Ahmed Raza to thank for that. Scotland's openers had racked up 50 in less than 10 overs but slumped to 98 for 6, unable to handle UAE's slow-bowling duo. Haider picked up 3 for 36 and Raza 2 for 19 in a combined 20 overs.
Richie Berrington waged a lone battle, hitting his eighth ODI fifty in the hopes of putting up a reasonable total. He was the last man dismissed, picked up by another debutant Zahoor Khan, who finished with 3 for 17, as UAE bowled Scotland out in the 46th over.
The bowlers continued to hold sway in the second innings as well, with Josh Davey (2-17) and Sharif (2-24) carving up the UAE top order, but Usman hit a career-best 45 and Mufti made an unbeaten 43 to take his team to victory with six wickets and 49 balls to spare.