DHAKA // The UAE missed a golden chance to claim a first victory over a major Test playing nation after their batsmen wilted against the brilliance of Lasith Malinga.
Playing at the Asia Cup against the elite of continental cricket for the first time since 2008, the national team fell to a 14-run defeat to Sri Lanka at Bangladesh’s National Stadium.
For half the match at least, the players from the emirates will have believed an upset was well within their grasp.
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Malinga, who played the first of 253 matches in the blue of Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup against the UAE 12 years ago, had other ideas, though. The Sri Lanka captain took four for 26 to wreck the national team’s challenge.
As an indicator of just how unfancied the UAE side are at this event, Amjad Javed had to introduce himself to the television presenter - who clearly knew Malinga well - at the toss.
Once the coin fell in his favour, doubters might have feared the UAE captain’s decision to bowl first was a defensive one.
UAE were at their most convincing when batting first during the qualifying round, and at first it appeared as though they had given Sri Lanka an advantage, as the openers put on 68 without trouble.
Then, gloriously, the plan came together. Amjad had reasoned in his interview he hoped to keep the defending champions to around 130. They made 129 for eight in their 20 overs, thanks in large part to the efforts of the captain himself.
He leaked 11 runs in his first one-over spell, but returned superbly. He dismissed Tillakaratne Dilshan, Dinesh Chandimal and Milinda Siriwardana in quick succession, to reduce the Sri Lankans to 89 for three.
The national team were on a roll. Mohammed Naveed and Mohammed Shahzad took two wickets each. Rohan Mustafa managed one.
Ahmed Raza went wicketless, but might even have been the pick of the UAE attack, going for just 14 runs off his quota. Sri Lanka managed just one six over the course of their innings.
Hopes of an upset undoubtedly will have been high at the turnaround. It took all of one delivery from the irresistible Malinga to puncture the high spirits, though.
Mustafa, whose form with the bat contributed so much to the UAE reaching this point, was trapped LBW on the first ball he faced.
Sri Lanka were always going to be a force on a ground where they have won the Asia Cup and World Twenty20 in the past two years, and the national team could barely withstand the onslaught.
Malinga took another in the over, and Nuwan Kulasekara took two in the third over as the UAE were reduced to 16 for four.
Although Swapnil Patil countered, making 37, his was a lone hand, as the UAE fell a long way short.
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