Dubai: UAE cricketers’ nerves were put to the test by thousands of vociferous supporters of the Afghanistan team at the Dubai International stadium in the second Twenty20 match of the three match series.

Cheered by the large Friday crowd, Afghanistan won the second match after a tense battle by five wickets and just two balls to spare.

UAE, who had gone down fighting in the first match too at the ICC Academy on Wednesday by 11 runs, thus lost the series.

In the Friday’s match, UAE won the toss and elected to bat first. They lost opener Mohammad Shahzad early for eight but in-form opener Rohan Mustafa played another fine knock of 43 off 31 balls with five boundaries and a six.

He put on 74 runs for the second wicket with Shaiman Anwar.

Through aggressive shots, Anwar hit a quick 60 off 50 balls with three sixes and four boundaries. His six off Mohammad Nabi over long off was powerful and so were his two sixes off Rashid Khan.

Mustafa was trapped leg before by Rashid Khan.

Next man Mohammad Usman hit a quick 15 runs off 14 balls with a fine six over mid-wicket off Karim Janat. Rameez Shahzad — who had hit 49 runs in the first match — displayed his form once again.

He hit Fareed Ahmad for three boundaries in one over and Nabi for two sixes in another over to speed up UAE’s run flow.

Anwar fell by pulling Fareed Ahmad to Rashid Khan at mid-wicket to the last ball of the innings. Shahzad remained unbeaten on 47 and UAE posted a challenging 179 for four in 20 overs.

Chasing a run rate of around nine runs per over, Afghanistan put on 44 runs in 3.5 overs when UAE skipper Amjad Javed clean bowled opener Mohammad Shahzad with a brilliant yorker for 31. Opener Hazrat Ullah pulled UAE pacer Mohammad Shahzad to Rameez for 18. When Javed also had Usman Ghani caught behind for 18 and then went on to also clean bowl Asghar Stanikzai for 29, Afghanistan slipped to 104 for 4 in 12.5 overs. When Samiullah Shenwari too got run out for 12, UAE sensed victory.

But Najibullah Zadran upset all the hopes of the UAE through a stupendous unbeaten 55 runs off just 24 balls with five boundaries and three sixes.

Zadran and Nabi (13 n.o) put on an unconquered 77 runs for the sixth wicket to win the match with two balls to spare.

Brief scores:

Afghanistan bt UAE by five wickets. UAE 179 for 4 in 20 overs (Rohan Mustafa 43, Shaiman Anwar 60, Rameez Shahzad 47 n.o, Fareed Ahmad 2 for 39) Afghanistan 183 for 5 in 19.4 overs (Mohammad Shahzad 31, Asghar Stanikzai 29, Najibullah Zadran 55n.o, Amjad Javed 3 for 40) Man of the match: Najibullah Zadran.