India beat UAE as Nasir Aziz five wickets in vain in ACC Emerging Cup semi-final

Dubai: Off-spinner Nasir Aziz’s five-wicket spell went in vain as the UAE crashed to a 46-run defeat to India’s Under-23 team in the semi-final of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Emerging Cup at the Kallang Ground on Friday.

India will now take on Pakistan in the final on Sunday. In the second semi-final, Pakistan beat Sri Lanka by one wicket.

For the UAE, it was Aziz’s second successive five wicket spell after on Thursday, he destroyed Bangladesh’s Under-23 team by bagging 5 for 17 and followed this up on Friday he took 5 for 51 to bowl out the strong India Under-23 team for 208 runs. Unfortunately, UAE’s batting collapsed from a commanding 97 for 1 in 24 overs to be bowled out for 162 in 48.2 overs.

Except for Shaimon Anwar, who top-scored with 44 runs and Swapnil Patil, who hit 41 runs, none of the other batsmen rose to the challenge. Gujarat’s slow left-arm spinner Akshar Patel destroyed the UAE with a fine spell of 4 for 29.

Speaking to Gulf News from Singapore, the UAE’s skipper Ahmed Raza said: “We bowled very well to restrict India to 208 runs and were cruising in the chase. We had just one batting collapse and we could not find our way back into the game. I am really pleased with the way things have gone in this tournament. Being the only associate country to reach the semi-finals is a big credit [to us]. We will carry a lot of positives from this event into the oncoming World Cup qualifiers. More tournaments like this will give us the opportunity to make more upsets in the future.”

The UAE had begun promisingly despite losing the toss.

Shadeep Silva trapped India’s star batsman Unmukt Chand leg before for a duck.

But then Indian openers Lokesh Rahul and Manprit Juneja put on 94 runs for the second wicket. Mohammad Naveed bowled Rahul for 43 to provide the breakthrough. He also bowled skipper Suryakumar Yadav for 6.

Juneja and Ankit Bawne took the score to 140 before Aziz had Bawne caught by Raza for 23. Raza then went on to dismiss Juneja for 76 and took three successive catches. Following his catch of Bawne at square leg, he caught Aparajit at mid-wicket off Naveed and Ashok Maneria at cover off Aziz for 30. Aziz picked the next three wickets in succession to hasten the end of Indian innings.

The UAE needed to score at a run-rate of 4.17 but lost opener Amjad Khan for 8. Opener Anwar and Patil dominated the Indian bowling before Patel provided the breakthrough by having Anwar stumped. Two balls later, he had star batsman Saqib Ali also caught behind for a duck. With the score on 102, he also had Patil caught behind.

The UAE’s lower-order batsmen Aziz (14) Raza (15) and Naveed (18) tried to fight back, but the Indian bowlers went for the kill.