BY : Syed Waseem Afzal
Solid knocks from Mehmood Pir Bux and Mairaj Khaliq steered UAE to a fine 3-wicket victory over Hong Kong.

Mehmood hit 56 off 89 balls under pressure to guide UAE to the brink of victory and then Mairaj Khaliq took the responsibility on his shoulders to cruise the team past the total.

Hong Kong skipper tried as many as 6 bowlers but no one was able to break the shackles after M Zubair had done the damage earlier in the innings.

M Zubair was the pick of the bowlers, capturing 4 wickets and conceding 30 runs from his quota of 10 overs. S Lama and Rahul Sharma claimed a wicket each and bowled well towards the end.

Earlier, a combination of bad running and good seam bowling from Asim Saeed led to the downfall of the Hong Kong team. UAE were outstanding in the field with as many as 4 run outs effected by them.

Rahul Sharma played a lone battle for Hong Kong and gave some respectability to the total score set by Hong Kong. Rahul Sharma was in the foe again and scored a gallant knock of 78 off 129 deliveries studded with 4 fours and 2 sixes. The second highest scorer was Extras standing in at 39 runs at the end of the innings.

Asim Saeed bowled extremely well and bagged 4 wickets for 32 runs from his quota of 10 overs. Ahmed Nadeem and Mohd Tauqeer were economical in their spells giving away 15 runs from 8.4 overs and 32 runs from 10 overs respectively.