Despite unexpected resistance from lower order batters of United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh managed to defeat them by a slim margin of 7 runs in the first match of the two-match T20 series on Sunday evening at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium of UAE.

Winning the toss UAE sent Bangladesh to bat first. Afif Hossain struck his career-best 77 and captain-in-charge Nurul Hasan Sohan scored 35 of 25. Bangladesh recovered from a shaky start with their batting and posted 158-5.  

UAE openers Muhammad Waseem and Chirag Suri got off to a fluent start, leaving Bangladesh a surprised state but the visitors got the breakthrough luckily when Waseem was trapped run out at non strikers.

After that the host began to lost wickets in regular interval. However, number seven batter Ayan Afzal scored 25 from 17, and Number ten batter Junaid Siddique scored 11 from 9, to take their team-score closed to the target.

Mehidy Hasan Miraz took 3 for 17 with his excellent tight bowling, while Shoriful Islam took 3 and Mustafizur Rahman took 2 for 31.  

Bd-pratidin English/Lutful Hoque