Pakistan made short work of an inexperienced UAE batting unit by winning their last group league game by 41 runs on Wednesday, to set up a much-anticipated Super 4s grudge match against India in the Asia Cup. The match started an hour late as Pakistan threatened a pull-out after the handshake fiasco during the previous game against India before Salman Agha's team climbed down and showed up for the game.

It was Shaheen Shah Afridi, who first blasted an unbeaten 29 off 14 balls to prop up what still otherwise looked a modest total of 146 for 9. For Associate Nations, any score above 130 against Test playing countries become a tall order as the bowling quality improves vastly and UAE could finally manage only 105 in 17.4 overs. Afridi (2/16) was too hot to handle for Alishan Sharafu (12), who was played on. UAE skipper Muhammad Waseem (14) was dismissed while trying to fetch a widish leg-break from Abrar Ahmed (2/13 in 4 overs), himself moving towards leg-stump resulting to a brilliant running catch by Mohammed Nawaz.