Mirpur: India put up a superb display with both the bat and ball to thrash the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by 9 wickets in their last league match of Asia Cup 2016 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium today.
Chasing a minimaslistic total of 82 runs, India emerged victorious in 10.1 overs, with Man of the Match Rohit Sharma ending up as the solitary consolation for the relatively inexperienced UAE side.
Bowling first, India restricted UAE to 81/9 runs in 20 overs. Shaiman Anwar top scored with a 48-ball 43 for the UAE, while seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar returned figures of 2/8, while the rest of the bowlers picked up a wicket each.
Indian bowlers maintained a tight grip over UAE batsmen right from the beginning with Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah claiming early dismissals.
Losing Swapnil Patil (1 run off 9 balls) and Mohammad Shahzad (0 run off 4 balls) at an early stage proved disastrous for UAE.
Bad run continued for the UAE as their third batsman Rohan Mustafa returned to the pavilion scoring just 11 runs off 22 balls. Hardik Pandya made the strike.
Fall of wickets continued as Pawan Negi dismissed Muhammad Usman (9 runs off 12 balls) and Harbhajan Singh sent back Amjad Javed for a duck.
Having won the toss, UAE elected to bat against team India at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.
Team India made several changes in their squad for this match. Ashish Nehra, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadega were replaced by Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Harbhajan Singh and Pawan Negi.
Amjad Javed, UAE Captain, after winning the toss said, "We will bat first. I guess, it is the same wicket that we played against Pakistan. Everything has gone well for us. We will try that again today."
On the other hand, Indian Captain MS Dhoni quipped, “We wanted to bat first just in case we have to bat in first the final, other than that nothing changes. Slightly more grass than the last wicket. I do not think much has changed, bit of grass has been taken off. We have plenty of changes, Ashish Nehra, Ashwin and Jadeja have been rested. So, Bhuvi, Harbhajan and Pawan Negi come in."
Teams:
India (Playing XI): Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni(w/c), Hardik Pandya, Pawan Negi, Harbhajan Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumra
United Arab Emirates (Playing XI): Rohan Mustafa, Muhammad Kaleem, Mohammad Shahzad, Shaiman Anwar, Muhammad Usman, Amjad Javed(c), Swapnil Patil(w), Mohammad Naveed, Qadeer Ahmed, Fahad Tariq, Ahmed Raza
