Abu Dhabi: Riding on a breezy half century from Zawar Farid, the UAE bounced back to defeat Nigeria by five wickets in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifiers at the Tolerance Oval ground,
Farid cracked 55 runs off 35 balls with three sixes and four boundaries after Nigeria got restricted to 113-3.
The UAE began their chase quickly with Rohan Mustafa hitting Chima Akachukwu for a six and a boundary off successive balls in the fifth over but fell to the next ball for 14.
Farid started aggressively by going for his shots and put on 43 runs for the second wicket with Chirag Suri who had to play second fiddle with just eight runs.
Farid hit Daniel Gim for two successive sixes and a boundary to race to his fifty but fell in ninth over.
Suri played only 12 balls to score his eight runs.
Waheed Ahmad too fell in the 11th over to push the UAE to 90-4.
Next man Mohammad Boota too fell for a duck in the next over.
Mohammad Usman took up the challenge and hit Sulaimon Runsewev for a six and four in the 13th over to ensure the victory.
Earlier, the UAE’s Junaid Siddique, who bowled the second over, had opener Runsewe caught and bowled for a duck.
In the third over, opener Daniel Ajeku too got run out for two.
Chimezie Onwuzulike hit Siddique for two consecutive boundaries in the sixth over.
The UAE skipper Ahmad Raza, who introduced himself in the eighth over, got one-drop batsman Adeleke Oyede out for 4.
Next man Sesan Adedeji quickly settled down and hit Raza as well as Rohan Mustafa for boundaries but in the first 10 overs they could muster only 31 runs.
Adedeji hit Imran Haider for two boundaries and a six in the 14th over and took the score to 70 by the end of the 15th over.
Onwuzulike continued to hit sixes off Raza and Ahmad to remain unbeaten on 46 but Adeddeji reached his half century as he finished at 51 not out.
At the ICC Academy Oval ground, Papua New Guinea (PNG) snapped Netherland’s winning streak to top Group A table.
Batting first, Netherlands posted 126-7 after slipping to 74-7 in 14.1 overs.
Lower-order batsman Timm Van der Gugten hit a breezy unbeaten 40 off 21 balls and put on an unbeaten 52-run partnership for the eighth wicket with his captain Pieter Seelaar (21no).
Chasing the total, PNG reached the target losing five wickets with six balls to spare.
In the second match at Tolerance Ground Oval, Hong Kong defeated Canada by 32 runs. Hong Kong posted 150 for seven through Kinchit Shah’s unbeaten 59.
Canada could muster only 118-9 with Nasrulla Rana bagging three wickets for 25 runs.
