Pakistan thrash UAE

Pakistan put in a collective effort and thrashed associate members UAE by 129 runs at the World Cup today and crept up to the fourth position in the Pool B point charter.

For UAE, it seemed the motto was to play 100 overs of cricket without much of an effort to chase down the target of 339 after they won the toss and put Pakistan to bat first.

Pakistan was finally able to gain some edge in this tournament and heaped the big total based on a string of integral innings in the must-win match for both teams at Napier.

It was a good and solid start for Pakistan after the fall of an early wicket with Mohammad Shehzad, 93, and Haris Sohail, 70, in a 160-run-partnership. Sohaib Maqsood, 45, and Misbah-ul-Haq, 65, added some more to the scoreboard.

Manjula Guruge took four wickets for Afghanistan and Mohammad Naveed claimed one.

Coming down to chase, UAE slipped early losing out three wickets before Shaiman Anwar, 62, and Khurram Khan, 43, made a "frustrating" 83-run fourth wicket partnership.

However, UAE players were never charging at the ball and were seeming mostly concerned with batting for the 50 overs instead of try and score runs.

Sohail Khan, Shahid Afridi and Wahab Riaz claimed two wickets each for Pakistan while Rahat Ali and Sohaib Maqsood took one each. Bad news for the team as Mohammad Irfan was out of play with injury after bowling a few overs.

Had Pakistan been able to curb UAE within 195, they would have been positioned in the third place pushing West Indies down under calculation of the net run rate.

Pakistan Team

Nasir Jamshed, Ahmed Shehzad, Haris Sohail, Misbah-ul-Haq (C), Umar Akmal (wk), Shahid Afridi, Sohaib Maqsood, Wahab Riaz, Sohail Khan, Rahat Ali, Mohammad Irfan

UAE Team

Amjad Ali, Andri Berenger, Krishna Chandran, Khurram Khan, Swapnil Patil (wk), Shaiman Anwar, Rohan Mustafa, Amjad Javed, Mohammad Naveed, Mohammad Tauqir (C), Manjula Guruge