Al Dhaid: Twenty-year-old left-arm pacer Moiz Shahid destroyed Oman with a deadly five-wicket spell to guide UAE into the final of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Twenty20 Championship at the Al Dhaid Cricket Village ground on Sunday.
UAE will now take on Afghanistan in the final at the Zayed Cricket Stadium at 1:45pm today. Afghanistan beat Kuwait by eight wickets in another semifinal at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.
It was a brilliant spell of fast bowling from Shahid, who began by clean bowling opener Hemin Desai for 8.
So deadly was his bowling that he clean bowled four of the five batsmen he dismissed from his four overs. He returned figures of 5 for 20 and Oman were bowled out for 50 runs in 15 overs.
"It was great to get my first five-wicket haul and that too in my fifth match for UAE in my debut tournament," Shahid told Gulf News.
"I love bowling on Al Dhaid wicket. I consider it as a very supportive wicket for me," added Shahid who plays for Sharjah Club in domestic cricket.
Shahid got good support from Qasim Zubair, who took two wickets to reduce Oman to 6 for 23 at one stage.
"I learned a lot from watching videos of my idol Wasim Akram as I too bowl left arm pace like him and want to bowl like him," said Shahid, who is a student at the Troy University.
For Oman, it was a shock defeat. They had reached the semifinal with an unbeaten run in Group B to top the table.
UAE began their chase losing opener Mohammad Iqbal for a duck. Amjad Javed and Arfan Haider with short knocks of 16 and 19 respectively raced to the target. UAE won in 8.1 overs.
Though Awal Khan dismissed Javed and Haider in quick succession, UAE reached the target comfortably.
In Sharjah, Afghanistan bowled out Kuwait for 115 runs and raced to victory in 16.4 overs.
Brief scores
UAE beat Oman by six wickets: Oman: 50 off 15 overs (Moin Shahid 5 for 20, Qasim Zubair 2 for 14, Arfan Hyder 2 for 0) UAE:51 for 4 off 8.1 overs (Awal Khan 2 for 32).
Man of the Match: Moiz Shahid.
Afghanistan beat Kuwait by eight wickets:
Kuwait: 115 off 18.1 overs (H.Mirza 33; S.Zadran 2 for 22, H.Hassan 3 for 23, S.Shinwari 2 for 9, M.Nabi 2 for 9) Afghanistan: 116 for 2 off 16.4 overs (Nowroz Mangal 51n.o, M.Shahzad 45).
Man of the Match: Nowroz Mangal.
