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New Delhi: Pakistan registered a convincing win over UAE in their final league game in Dubai to qualify for the Super 4 stage of the Asia Cup 2025. After a day full of drama over threatening to boycott the continental cup due to handshake row, Pakistan finally took to the field an hour later and bagged a impressive 41-run win to knock the local side out and book another clash with arch-rivals India in the Super 4 stage.
Pakistan's batting wasn't that impressive as the batting-heavy side just managed to score 146/9 in the stipulated 20 overs after a half-centuries help from Fakhar Zaman and a 29-run swift knock from Shaheen Shah Afridi who once again proved as the saviour for the side after adding some useful runs towards the end.
Openers Sahibzada Farhan and Saim Ayub failed to impress the fans once again as they succumbed for 5 runs and a duck respectively. It was Fakhar's knock of 50 runs in just 36 balls that gave life to Pakistan's innings followed by skipper Salman Agha's tiny contribution of 20 runs. Wicketkeeper Mohammed Haris contributed 18 runs and Afridi played a vital 14-ball 29-run knock to help his side score a modest total.
Rest of the batters failed to contribute for the team. For the UAE side, Junaid Siddique proved to be the pick of the bowlers with 4 wickets while Simranjeet Singh claimed three wickets.
During the chase, UAE started off slow and steadily but wickets at continuous intervals dented their efforts. Batters Rahul Chopra and Dhruv Parashar stitched almost a 48-run stand in the middle overs which put the Pakistan bowlers under pressure but soon after Parashar's wicket for 20 runs, Pakistan came back into the match. Chopra went onto score 35 runs but failed to take his innings ahead.
Earlier, openers Alishan Sharafu and Muhammad Wasim scored 12 and 14 runs respectively while rest of the batters failed against the superior bowling attack. For Pakistan, Afridi, Haris Rauf and Abrar Ahmed shined with two wickets each while Saim Ayub and Salman Agha contributed with one wicket apiece.
