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United Arab Emirates's Junaid Siddique, left, celebrates the dismissal of Pakistan's Sahibzada Farhan with teammates during the Asia Cup cricket match between Pakistan and United Arab Emirates at Dubai International Cricket Stadium, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025. AP/PTI
Dubai: Pacer Junaid Siddique and Amritsar born left-arm spinner Simranjeet Singh were exceptional in their execution but Pakistan's late-order surge got them to a fighting 146 for nine in a do-or-die Asia Cup group match here on Wednesday.
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. Simranjeet (3/26 in 4 overs) and Junaid (4/18) shared the bulk of the spoils in one of UAE's best bowling efforts in recent times against a Test playing nation.
Once again, Pakistan's top-order, save senior-pro Fakhar Zaman (50 off 36 balls), failed and it was Mohammed Haris (18) and Shaheen Shah Afridi (29 no off 14 balls), whose use of the long-handle to good effect got them to a fighting score.
At the start, Junaid dismissed Saim Ayub for his second successive duck while Sahibzada Farhan's (5) pick-up shot went all awry.
In the middle overs, the ball was stopping and coming on to the batters as Simranjeet's deliveries gripped and bounced. One such delivery got rid of Fakhar as he tried to check the drive.
Mohammed Nawaz was out to an arm ball as Simranjeet celebrated with a 'Siddhu Moosewala' thigh slap.
However, towards the end, it was Shaheen who hit some telling blows as the total reached closer to 150 which can be tough for UAE.