Live report: Siddique removes Ayub, Farhan early

Saim Ayub's horror Asia Cup continues. After two golden ducks against Oman and India, Ayub now has a two-ball duck against UAE. A half-hearted shot brings about his downfall. Siddique gets a back-of-length ball outside off, Ayub slashes at it, gets a thick top-edge and deep third takes a comfortable catch over his head.

This is what happens when form is not on your side. Ayub would generally just ride the bounce, allow the ball to come to him and cut this away. But, he went with hard hands and this is just the start UAE were looking for. Earlier, Siddique, who is the highest wicket-taker for UAE in T20Is, also rapped Farhan on the pad with the on-field umpire giving it out. But, replays suggested that the ball was going over the stumps.

From Sampath Bandarupalli: Abdullah Shafique had four ducks in a row in T20Is. Him and Mohammad Hafeez (3) are the only ones with three or more consecutive ducks in men's T20Is among Pakistan players before Ayub.

It's already been an action-packed day off the field, now time for some action on it. The national anthems are done. Here come the two umpires, followed by the UAE team and the two Pakistan openers Saim Ayub and Sahibzada Farhan. Junaid Siddique has the new ball and is over the wicket.

Toss UAE opt to bowl vs Pakistan

After a 90-minute to the start of the game, UAE have won the toss in Dubai and elected to bowl. Captain Muhammad Waseem said that he expected dew to play a part, while confirming that Simranjeet Singh has come in for Muhammad Jawadullah.

"We will try to restrict them," Waseem said. "It is a do or die game. We will take advantage. We had a good game in Abu Dhabi; this is a different game."

Pakistan captain Salman Agha said he wanted to bat as "I always believe in putting the scoreboard pressure". Pakistan have made two changes to the side that lost to India on Sunday, with Haris Rauf and Khushdil Shah coming in. They have replaced Sufiyan Muqeem and Faheem Ashraf in the XI.

One of these two teams will be eliminated in today's game. Both sides beat Oman comfortably and lost to India heavily, making this fixture in Dubai a knockout game: the winner joins India in the Super Four, while the loser exits.

There was uncertainty over whether the match would go ahead at all and ultimately caused the start to be delayed by 60 minutes. The match went ahead after Pycroft apologised to the Pakistan team, according to the PCB, for his actions during the India-Pakistan game on Sunday.

UAE: 1 Alishan Sharafu, 2 Muhammad Waseem (capt), 3 Asif Khan, 4 Muhammad Zohaib, 5 Harshit Kaushik, 6 Rahul Chopra (wk), 7 Dhruv Parashar, 8 Haider Ali, 9 Muhammad Rohid Khan, 10 Simranjeet Singh, 11 Junaid Siddique

Pakistan: 1 Saim Ayub, 2 Sahibzada Farhan, 3 Mohammad Haris (wk), 4 Fakhar Zaman, 5 Salman Agha (capt), 6 Khushdil Shah, 7 Hasan Nawaz, 8 Mohammad Nawaz, 9 Shaheen Afridi, 10 Haris Rauf, 11 Abrar Ahmed

While there has been no statement from the ICC on the matter, the PCB has issued one that claims Pycroft apologised to the Pakistan team.

Here's the full statement from the PCB: "The ICC’s match referee, Andy Pycroft, has apologised to the manager and captain of the Pakistan cricket team. Andy Pycroft had barred the captains of India and Pakistan from shaking hands during their match.

The Pakistan Cricket Board had strongly reacted to Andy Pycroft’s actions. Andy Pycroft termed the September 14 incident a result of miscommunication and apologised. The ICC has expressed its willingness to conduct an inquiry into the code of conduct violation that occurred during the September 14 match."

Multiple sources have told ESPNcricinfo that Andy Pycroft remains match referee for the game - as we had reported earlier in the day. The Pakistan team, meanwhile, has arrived at the ground.

ESPNcricinfo understands that we will have a full game. The toss will take place at 7pm local time and the first ball will be bowled at 7.30pm. We still don't know whether Pycroft will officiate the match or not.

Mohsin Naqvi has just tweeted: "We have asked the Pakistan team to depart for the Dubai Cricket Stadium. Further details to follow."

Shashank pings from the hotel: "People are being asked to leave the lobby. No filming. The area is being cleared. The team bus is moving from the parking bay to the entrance."

"Mohsin Naqvi, the PCB chair, is meeting and discussing with former chairs Ramiz Raja and Najam Sethi," Amir Mir, PCB spokesperson, told reporters at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. "They are discussing the issue and are in touch with Dubai over the matter. The match has been delayed by an hour for now."

It is not clear who has okayed the delay, although it is worth noting that Mohsin Naqvi is also the current ACC president.

Shashank Kishore, meanwhile, tells me that the UAE players arrived at the venue 20 minutes ago. They have started with their warm-up routines. A couple of them even finished their pre-match flash interview with the broadcaster.

The PCB blamed Pycroft following the conclusion of Sunday's clash between India and Pakistan, during which the Indian players refused to shake hands with the Pakistanis at the toss and at the end of the game. Pakistan captain Salman Agha skipped the post-match presentation in protest, though the coach Mike Hesson did appear at the post-game press conference.

The PCB claimed Pycroft had told Agha that there would be no handshakes at the toss, which it argued is in contravention to MCC laws. In the complaint to the ICC general manager Wasim Khan, the PCB said Pycroft's actions had violated the MCC's laws and were contrary to the spirit of cricket, and insisted that he be removed from the remaining Asia Cup fixtures. There were also reports, though not formally stated by either the PCB or its chairman Mohsin Naqvi that Pakistan were considering withdrawing from the tournament if this demand was not met.

ESPNcricinfo understands that PCB officials were involved in discussions with the ICC on Wednesday but no change was made to the match-officials roster.

On Tuesday evening, Pakistan had cancelled their press conference on the eve of their game against UAE as the fallout from the handshake controversy continued. Pakistan's training session after the scheduled press conference, however, went ahead as planned.