Sharafu, Waseem fifties lift UAE to 172

A skillful half-century from Alishan Sharafu and a dogged one from Muhammad Waseem took UAE to 172 for 5 in their Asia Cup game against Oman on Monday.

Both teams are searching for their first win of the tournament and their challenge in Abu Dhabi was to negotiate a slow and low pitch. Sharafu did so by charging out of the crease. Twelve attempts just within the powerplay fetched all six of his fours in that period. Then came perhaps his best shot, an inside out drive over cover for six against legspinner Samay Shrivastava.

UAE were 11 for 0 in three overs. Then they whacked 39 runs off the next three and never looked back.

Waseem was scratchy. He attempted a number of big hits and not all of them came off, indicating how he never really got the pace of the pitch. But thanks to his experience at this level, he was able to bide his time, recover from 3 off 9 to post 69 off 54. Oman didn't help themselves in the field. They had a chance to dismiss Waseem on 27 off 22 but the fielder wasn't all the way back on the long-on boundary and not only did he miss the catch he let it go for four. Then on 34 off 33, Shakeel Ahmed dropped a dolly at short fine leg. He came in for further punishment, hit for 12 runs (three times as many as he had given up in match) in the 15th over.

Shah Faisal missed his mark in the 19th over which went for 18 runs and finished with figures of 4-0-45-0. UAE lost a couple of wickets in the last over, but they had done enough damage.