Asia Cup was off to a great start. Bangladesh was beaten by India in the first match of it. The second match of Asia Cup was between Sri Lanka and UAE. Malinga, Kulasekra, Mathews and Herath were back in the Sri Lankan side. Sri Lankan side was looking pretty good after their come back and was ready to defend the Asia Cup. On the other end UAE had qualified for the main tournament from the qualifiers. The qualifiers were played between UAE, Hong Kong, Afghanistan & Oman. UAE topped the table in the qualifying round by winning all the matches. Everyone was expecting Afghanistan to qualify for the main tournament but UAE turned out to be a better team in that round. Both the teams were ready for the encounter Sri Lanka was ready to defend their championship & UAE was ready to prove that they are not minnows.
It was the same green top at Mirpur. UAE won the toss and elected to bowl first. Every captain likes to bowl first on the green top. Dilshan and Chandimal opened the batting for Sri Lanka. It was tight start by UAE, they gave just 7 runs in first two overs of the innings. Then in third over, Dilshan decided to attack. He hit three boundaries in that over and brought run rate to 6 R.P.O. In fourth over, Chandimal decided to go for big and he dispatched one into the stands on the fifth ball of that over. Then he ended that over with a boundary. From 7-0 after 2 overs, they reached to 31-0 at the end of 4 overs. In fifth over, they continued to attack. Chandimal hit back to back boundaries on fourth & fifth ball of that over. After a slow start, Sri Lanka ended the power play on high. They were 49-0 after 6 overs. In eighth over, Sri Lankan openers started giving opportunities to UAE fielders but they managed to get three fours in that over.
In tenth over, Amjad Javed drew first blood. He got the wicket of Dilshan at his personal score of 27. After the wicket of Dilshan, Siriwardana joined Chandimal in the middle. Sri Lanka had changed its batting order completely. It was very unusual and unexpected batting order. First, Chandimal came out to open the innings and then Siriwardana at no. 3. Chandimal's move worked as Sri Lanka was off to a great start but Siriwardana was not able to cash in the opportunity. He got out in the similar fashion in which Dilshan got out. Sri Lanka was 79-2 at the start of twelfth over. In fourteenth over, Chandimal finished his half century. He got his 50 off 38 deliveries but immediately after that he gave a simple catch to mid wicket fielder. After that Sri Lanka just fell apart. After Chandimal, Shanaka was first one to go. In seventeenth over, Mathews followed Shanaka after making 8. Jayasuriya hit couple of boundaries but he too was knocked over after that. Sri Lanka was 113-6 in eighteenth over. Kapugedera was the next man to be dismissed. When he got out Sri Lanka was 123-7 in last over. After such a great start, Sri Lanka only managed to score 129 runs off their 20 overs.
Upset was on the cards. UAE batsmen just had to give some respect to the swing of Malinga and Kulasekara in the first few overs. Opening pair of Kaleem & Mustafa came out to chase that total. Malinga had a new ball in his hand and he struck first ball. Swinging delivery of Malinga found the pads of Mustafa. UAE 0-1. Malinga didn't stop there. He finished off that over with his trademark yorker. He disturbed the furniture of Shahzad. UAE was 7-2 at the end of first over. The start was bound to be slow but UAE had to keep wickets in hand and it was not happening for UAE. Fourth over of UAE innings began with a wicket. This time it was Kulasekara. Kaleem just threw his wicket away. He went for the big one but was not able to clear Mathews at long off. It was a simple catch for Mathews. Malinga brought two slips in place after that wicket and straight away Usman justified that move. He went down the track and edged one to first slip. UAE were in all sorts of trouble at 16-4.
Patil and Anwar added 20 odd runs for the fifth wicket. They were getting comfortable on the wicket. Seeing that, Malinga brought Herath in to the attack and Herath responded with a wicket. UAE lost its fifth wicket in eighth over. Patil was looking good at one end but there was lack of support at the other end. Patil hit a huge six in tenth over but Haider gave it away before that over ended. Then there was another partnership between Patil & Javed but it was a slower one. Required rate climbed upto 12 R.P.O. as they didn't pace the innings well. They took the score of UAE to 85 in the seventeenth over but at that total Malinga broke that partnership. UAE lost its seventh wicket. The match went out of UAE's hand. Tail enders added 30 more runs to the total & UAE finished off at 115-9. Sri Lanka won it by 14 runs. UAE gave tough fight to them. They didn't play like minnows in that match. Unfortunately their batting was not upto the mark. Two major teams got points on the board in first two matches of Asia Cup which was off to a great start.
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