Al Amerat (Oman): Opener Abhishek Sharma struck a scintillating half-century after an excellent performance by the bowlers as a dominant India defeated UAE by seven wickets to enter the semifinals of the Emerging Teams Asia Cup here on Monday.
This was the Indian team’s second win in as many matches in the tournament, having beaten traditional rivals Pakistan by seven runs in the opener.
Abhishek smashed 58 in 24 balls before Ayush Badoni completed the formality of chasing down a target of 108 with a six and four. India won with as many as 55 balls still left to be bowled.
While Abhishek hit five fours and four sixes in his blazing knock, skipper Tilak Varma missed out on a big one after making 21 in 18 balls.
Opting to bat first, UAE were bowled out for 107 in 16.5 overs.
The decision backfired as UAE lost both openers — Mayank Kumar (10) and Aryansh Sharma (1) — inside the first two overs.
Seamer Rasikh Salam dismissed three batters in his opening over, reducing UAE to 40 for 5 inside the power play.
Salam was adjudged the Player of the Match for returning excellent figures of 3/15 with the ball. There were also a couple of strikes from Ramandeep Singh (2/7) as India bundled out UAE with more than three overs remaining in their innings.
UAE skipper Basil Hameed (22 off 12 balls) and Rahul Chopra (50 off 50 balls) steadied the ship with a 41-run partnership before Abhishek broke the partnership, getting the former caught off his own bowling.
That UAE managed to cross 100 was largely due to Chopra’s effort.
India are currently on top of Group B with four points, and take on hosts Oman in their final group game on Wednesday.
