UAE beat Canada to boost hopes of making Super 8s

Men’s T20 World Cup, Group D, Delhi

Canada 150-7 (20 overs): Thaker 50 (41); Siddique 5-35

UAE 154 (19.4 overs): Sharma 74* (53), Khan 51 (29); Bin Zafar 3-14

United Arab Emirates won by five wickets

Aryansh Sharma hit an unbeaten 74 as United Arab Emirates bolstered their remote hopes of qualifying for the T20 World Cup Super 8s with a tense five-wicket win over Canada.

Canada looked well placed to defend their total of 150-7 with four overs remaining, only for Sohaib Khan to reignite UAE’s chase when he took 17 off Dillon Heyliger.

UAE needed eight runs off the final over and Sharma settled any nerves after he clobbered Jaskaran Singh’s first ball for six over mid-wicket.

Khan was then caught – after a blistering 51 off 29 balls, including four sixes – with the scores level.

But new batter Muhammad Arfan nonchalantly biffed Singh for four to seal the victory with two balls to spare as Sharma top-scored with his knock off 53 balls.

UAE are now third in Group D on two points but the associate nation must pull off shock wins over full members South Africa and Afghanistan next week to reach the next phase.

They have never beaten a full member at a World Cup of any format but will take some confidence from the manner in which they chased down this total.

Earlier, Junaid Siddique had picked up the best figures by a UAE player at a T20 World Cup with 5-35 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi.

Harsh Thaker, who struck three sixes and two fours in a 41-ball half-century, had provided the backbone of Canada’s total.

He shared a 58-run partnership with Navneet Dhaliwal to help the Canadians recover from 38-3 before the latter was run out on 34.

Thaker fell victim to Siddique’s slower ball with 14 balls left and Canada struggled to find the boundary against some tight bowling by the UAE.