A small piece of cricket history was made on Monday night when the UAE defeated Bangladesh for the first time ever in a T20 international.
Having been set a daunting target of 206 in Sharjah, the UAE held their nerve in the final over to pull off a two-wicket victory and the biggest chase ever by an associate nation against a full member team in T20Is. The previous highest was 191 by Afghanistan against Zimbabwe in 2015.
It was also the first ever successful chase of a 200-plus target in the UAE in T20Is and tied the series up at 1-1, with the decider to come on Wednesday.
Muhammad Waseem led from the front with a brilliant 42-ball 82 but it was Haider Ali, playing in only his second match for the UAE and batting for the first time, who took them over the line in a dramatic finish.
The left arm spinner arrived at the crease at number nine to smash 15 off six deliveries. That included a six to clinch victory for his side by eight wickets with a ball to spare.
Haider smashed seamer Shoriful Islam over backward point for the maximum in the second ball he faced before an eventful overthrow that fetched him five more runs in the next.
Haider played back a delivery towards the bowler and scurried for a single. Shoriful had enough time to aim at the stumps from close range but missed completely with no one backing up, conceding 11 runs from just two deliveries.
That set the tone with 12 runs required from Tanzim Hasan’s final over. Dhruv Parishar whacked a full toss for six but was out next ball, leaving Haider to take his team over the line. The UAE finished on 206-8 in reply to Bangladesh's 205-5.
“We needed 29 to win from the last 11 balls which meant we had to score virtually off every ball. It was a big challenge and for me an opportunity to go out there and get those runs,” Haider told The National.
“I have played a lot of domestic cricket on this ground and I was confident that I can turn this game around for our team. Alhamdulillah, I’m glad I did it.
“I was pretty sure of hitting any short delivery out of the ground and the second ball was exactly what I wanted. True, I put the finishing touch to this game but everyone chipped in with their contributions in this remarkable win.”
Waseem and Muhammad Zohaib (38 off 34) shared an opening stand of 107 in 61 balls to set the platform and then the rest of the batters kept that momentum going until the end to complete the UAE’s historic win.
Waseem was ecstatic with the result and optimistic of replicating the victory in the series decider on Wednesday.
“The win has provided us the confidence that we can do it again and that’s what we want to do going into the next game. We want go out there and play positive cricket,” Waseem, who belted nine fours and five sixes, said.
“I was giving hope to everyone that we can chase this score because we know the conditions here on this ground.
“We went with a game plan and it worked well for us. We made changes in the batting order as we wanted quick runs at every over of the game. And everyone who came into bat rose to the occasion and contributed with some big hits.
“I’m very happy with the team’s performance and my own to win against a Test-playing team. We will go with our strengths for the deciding game and hopefully we can make it 2-1.”
The Bangladesh captain Litton Das admitted it was a tough loss to take.
He said: “Any loss is hard, but we still batted well on this wicket. Wicket was pretty good, when they batted, they had the favour of dew. We missed a bit in the fielding and in the middle overs bowling. When you play on this type of ground, which is small and with dew a factor, you have to calculate and plan (as bowlers).
“What Rana did before [his final over], we were expecting more from him. You can have good days and bad days. We will sit and talk and come back.”
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