Sharafu and Waseem spearhead UAE's win over Oman

They're on the board for this Asia Cup, outclassing Oman by 42 runs. Alishan Sharafu and Muhammad Waseem hit half-centuries at the top of the order to take UAE to 172 for 5 and it was well beyond Oman's reach, who stumbled to 32 for 4 in the powerplay and then 50 for 5 and eventually all they could do was to try and bat out the overs. Siddique threw a spanner in those works too, picking up four wickets and bowling them out for 130 in the 19th over.

Oman have only one wicket standing and that's because Junaid Siddique picked up two in the 16th over. He has six balls left to look to grab a first T20I five-for

The equation reads 69 off 30 balls but with only three wickets in hand, that's not really relevant for Oman right now. Will they be able to play out the overs?

Oman have strung a partnership together The debutant Bisht and Vinayak Shukla abandoning the need for quick runs and just focusing on survival. They now have to score at nearly 10s through the back 10 overs of the innings but perhaps they just want to give themselves a chance instead of falling in a heap trying to hit big.

Oman hit four boundaries in the first 10 balls and three boundaries since.

It's all coming apart. Five overs into the chase, Oman are four down and this will sting because Mirza, who was dropped on 0 off 1, had absolutely nailed the cut shot. Rohid had offered width. It was there to be put away, but here's the importance of taking your chances. Parashar at point fumbles first, but then takes the rebound. Oman were guilty of being lax with their fielding earlier. They are still paying the price. Aryan Bisht, the 20-year-old T20I debutant, is the new man in

Helped largely by Wasim, the batter playing all around a fairly straight delivery. Initially it looked like he wanted to scoop it. Then seeing that the length of the ball is a bit shorter than he'd like, he is rushed into making an adjustment. In the end, he still ends up going across the line of the ball and ending up plumb in front of the stumps. DRS only proves how plumb so Wasim gone, and so is a review.

Jatinder Singh, briefly, looked like the best of all the batters today, certainly in terms of timing. He hit three fours in the second over and one of those was a ball that stopped on him, forcing him to check his shot and still it skipped away through cover.

Hitting through the line has not been easy on this pitch and Jatinder finds that out himself in the third over, when he goes hard at Siddique only to inside edge to fast bowler onto his stumps

Hit-me ball. Kaleem obliged. Problem is, he doesn't pick the gap well enough. Kaushik, after a good cameo earlier in the day, picks up a good catch moving to his right at mid-off

A skillful half-century from Alishan Sharafu and a dogged one from Muhammad Waseem took UAE to 172 for 5 in their Asia Cup game against Oman on Monday.

Both teams are searching for their first win of the tournament and their challenge in Abu Dhabi was to negotiate a slow and low pitch. Sharafu did so by charging out of the crease. Twelve attempts just within the powerplay fetched all six of his fours in that period. Then came perhaps his best shot, an inside out drive over cover for six against legspinner Samay Shrivastava.

UAE were 11 for 0 in three overs. Then they whacked 39 runs off the next three and never looked back.

Waseem was scratchy. He attempted a number of big hits and not all of them came off, indicating how he never really got the pace of the pitch. But thanks to his experience at this level, he was able to bide his time, recover from 3 off 9 to post 69 off 54. Oman didn't help themselves in the field. They had a chance to dismiss Waseem on 27 off 22 but the fielder wasn't all the way back on the long-on boundary and not only did he miss the catch he let it go for four. Then on 34 off 33, Shakeel Ahmed dropped a dolly at short fine leg. He came in for further punishment, hit for 12 runs (three times as many as he had given up in match) in the 15th over.

Shah Faisal missed his mark in the 19th over which went for 18 runs and finished with figures of 4-0-45-0. UAE lost a couple of wickets in the last over, but they had done enough damage.

Harshit Kaushik doesn't have a lot of time to get his bearings. He's 1 off 1 when the 19th over begins. Perhaps the fact that he has nothing to lose helps. The only thing he needs to do at this stage is to hit out. If it goes big, great, if it doesn't, UAE have the wickets to keep going.

As it turns out, Faisal Shah helps Kaushik out, bowling a slot ball and a slower ball gone wrong, which goes for two sixes. This is a pitch where Waseem has struggled to find timing. To come in and whack it like that, is good stuff

Shakeel Ahmed bowled two overs for just four runs inside the powerplay. On his return, he has to deal with a different kind of threat - a left-hander. He is unable to. Though new at the crease, Muhammad Zohaib is able to tonk Shakeel for a four and a six and UAE are well set for the back end.

A scratchy innings from the UAE captain, but all his experience has come in. He bided his time, was once 3 off 9, then burst into life with three fours in an over against a new bowler in the powerplay. Got two lives due to fielding mishaps and brings up his fifty with what he is known for - a six down the ground

UAE make a play, pushing the big-hitting Asif Khan up the order to try and keep the momentum going. Unfortunately, his defensive technique is not so good. In trying to keep out a googly from Shrivastava, he brings his bat down angled and ends up inside edging onto his stumps. Oman with two wickets in 2.1 overs. Could they build on that? Waseem is at the other end, unbeaten on 40 off 36 but he could've been gone for 27 off 22 or 34 off 31

Throws his head back in deep disappointment and walks off knowing he's left runs on the field. Alishan Sharafu has been excellent in giving UAE the momentum they needed after they were put in to bat, but he's gone for 51 off 38 balls. Instrumental in the powerplay, repeatedly charging at the bowlers, messing with their lengths to get a lot of his boundaries. Was very productive square of the wicket on the off side and it is aiming to that region that he loses his off stump.

Jiten Ramanandi gets the wicket and it's well-deserved because he had seen a very simple catch put down by team-mate Shakeel Ahmed just two balls ago. Waseem was the batter, beneficiary now of two fielding mishaps

The game is already slipping away from Oman, who are now making basic errors. A sub fielder isn't on the boundary at long-on. Sometimes that's fair. But it's Waseem on strike and he's the second most prolific six hitter in T20Is. The cost of not being in the right position is that he isn't able to pick up a catch and the ball lobs over for four. UAE 83 for 0 in 10 overs. They were 11 for 0 after three. From hammering those last three powerplay overs for 39 runs, the home side has been in control

He's stepped out of his crease 12 times in a 22-ball innings. He stepped out three times in three balls to Hassnain Shah in the last over of the powerplay and crashed them all for four. He's understood that this is a slow pitch and he needs to make the pace himself to score quick runs.

Oman had kept the score down to 11 after three overs. And then...

Faisal Shah bowled a very long fourth over

Aamir Kaleem had a tough introduction into the game in the fifth over. Waseem, who was 3 off 9, took a real liking to his left-arm spin

Early signs of a slow pitch where if you hit a good length and keep the stumps in play, the batter has to take risks to score. Alishan Sharafu, who has earned a fair bit of pedigree playing in the ILT20, gets the first boundary away for UAE, but to do so, he needed pace on the ball, and on top of that he had to step away to the leg side.

Oman captain Jatinder Singh won the toss and chose to bowl against UAE as both teams seek their first points in the Asia Cup 2025.

Oman made three changes to the XI that lost to Pakistan earlier in the tournament, with allrounders Wasim Ali and Aryan Bisht and left-arm seamer Jiten Ramanandi coming in for Mohammad Nadeem, Sufyan Mehmood and Zikria Islam. Bisht,20, is making his T20I debut.

UAE made one change from the XI that lost to India earlier in the tournament, benching left-arm spinner Simranjeet Singh for fast bowler Muhammad Jawadullah.

This is the first double-header game of the Asia Cup, played in conditions where the heat rises up to 36 degree celsius.

UAE: Muhammad Waseem (c), Muhammad Zohaib, Asif Khan, Alishan Sharafu, Rahul Chopra (wk), Dhruv Parashar, Haider Ali, Muhammad Rohid, Harshit Kaushik, Muhammad Jawad, Junaid Siddique

Oman: Jatinder Singh (c), Aamir Kaleem, Hammad Mirza, Vinayak Shukla (wk), Wasim Ali, Hassnain Shah, Shah Faisal, Aryan Bisht, Shakeel Ahmad, Samay Shrivastava, Jitenkumar Ramanandi