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Waseem and UAE make history after acing 206 chase against Bangladesh
UAE held their nerve in a last-gasp finish in Sharjah, and eventually completed a famous two-wicket win against Bangladesh in the second T20I.
It was a historic effort from the home side to win for the first time against Bangladesh, chasing down 205 runs with a ball to spare. UAE captain Muhammad Waseem’s 82 held the innings together, as he struck nine fours and five sixes from 42 balls.
But it was how UAE reacted after Waseem’s departure, with 58 runs still left in the chase, that spoke of their strength in character. Every player struck at least a six from No. 7 onwards, with Dhruv Parashar keeping his cool in the last over. Haider Ali struck the winning runs off Tanzim Hasan off the penultimate ball. Although it was a free hit, both Haider and Matiullah Khan were in a mix-up. Towhid Hridoy, inexplicably, didn’t throw the ball on the first attempt. By the time Hridoy’s throw came in, Haider had completed the two runs that gave UAE the famous win.
UAE’s chase started with a stroke of luck when Najmul Hossain Shanto couldn’t latch on to a tough chance off Muhammad Zohaib’s outside edge, off the first ball. Waseem, though, took off from where he left off in the first game. He launched Tanvir Islam out of the stadium in the second over. This one didn’t even bounce on the roof, but went straight out of the ground into the trees.
He struck Tanzim over midwicket with a swing of the bat, before slog-sweeping Tanvir in the next over, for his third six. Waseem also took a liking to Rana’s pace, tonking him three time in the ninth over, straight, through the covers and over point. He lifted Rishad over long-on for his fourth six to complete a century opening stand.
UAE lost two wickets in the 11th and 12th overs but Bangladesh couldn’t make it three in a row. Hridoy dropped Waseem, who was batting on 63, in the 13th over. He clattered Tanvir for his fifth six soon afterwards, as he got the chase immediately back on track.
Nahid Rana has made an impressive start in Tests and T20Is so there was hope and hype about his T20I debut. He however couldn’t quite release the ball properly in his first over. He dropped one too short first ball, before bowling a beamer next ball. Both were no-balls, before Zohaib top edged a catch to cover off the free hit.
Rana couldn’t get his bearing right, bowling a big wide down the leg-side next, before Waseem cracked him twice through point for consecutive fours. It could have been a third four but Hridoy stopped a sharp blow at midwicket at the 30-yard line. Nahid went for 18 in his first over.
UAE were still doing well when Asif Khan slammed Tanzim for consecutive sixes in the 14th over. The second was a special shot, a flat blow through the covers. Shorfiul Islam, however, got the better of Waseem in the following over, getting him caught behind with a slower delivery. Jaker took a splendid catch, diving well to his right. Rana, smarting after two expensive overs, hit back with Asif’s wicket. He got the big hitter to slog at a hard length. Rana took the catch off his own bowling, giving Bangladesh a vital edge in the contest.
Rana could have had another wicket but the captain Litton Das, Rishad and Tanzid nearly collided to take Saghir Khan’s catch. The ball went down, before Saghir cracked Rishad for a six over long on. He, however, fell next ball, getting caught at long-off. Aryansh Sharma repeated Saghir’s formula, top-edging Rana for a six before getting caught and bowled one ball later. Shoriful started the penultimate over by removing Alishan Sharafu, giving Bangladesh another boost.
Parashar, however, didn’t get fazed by the wickets at the other end, slamming Shorfiul for a four over mid-on, and six through point. With 17 to win off the last seven balls, Shoriful conceded five overthrows by throwing at the non-striker’s end.
Tanzim started the 12-run defense in the last over with a wide down the leg side. Parashar then posted Tanzim’s full-toss high over long-on for a six, leaving just four needed off the remaining four balls. He however fell next ball, before Matiullah Khan took a single. The decisive moment of the game, arguably, came next ball: Tanzim bowled another full-toss, which was adjudged a no-ball.
Haider managed to squeeze the ball through point and hared back for the second but there was a mix-up with Matiullah. Had Hridoy thrown the ball with the first attempt, the run-out was very much possible as the replays showed that Haider reached the crease just in the nick of time as the throw came in late.
Bangladesh made their best start in seven years when they got 17 runs in the first over of the match. Tanzid slammed Matiullah Khan for a big six off the fourth ball, before hammering two straight boundaries. Then, Litton cracked Dhruv Parashar for consecutive fours too, but Muhammad Jawadullah dropped a sitter off the next ball, when Litton was on ten.
Jawadullah didn’t fare better with the ball shortly afterwards. UAE’s best bowler from the first game, the left-arm quick went for 15 runs in his first over. Tanzid cracked him through the covers first ball, before launching him into the stands over square-leg. Then came the dab past the lone slip. Tanzid eventually completed his fourth T20I fifty with a six off left-arm spinner Haider Ali.
Tanzid however fell in the tenth over when he couldn’t hit it past Matiullah at deep square-leg. Overall, he struck three sixes and eight fours in his 33-ball 59. He helped stitch together an opening stand of 90 with Litton, as Bangladesh eventually made a towering 205 for 5. It wasn’t to be enough.
Brief scores:
UAE 206 for 8 in 19.5 overs (Muhammad Waseem 82, Muhammad Zohaib 38, Asif Khan 19, Alishan Sharafu 13, Druhv Parashar 11, Haider Ali 13*; Shoriful Islam 2-34, Tanvir Islam 1-37, Tanzim Hasan Sakib 1-55, Nahid Rana 2-50, Rishad Hasan 2-28) beat Bangladesh 205 for 5 in 20 overs (Tanzid Hasan 59, Litton Das 40, Najmul Hossain /shanto 27, Towhid Hridoy 45, Jaker Ali 1; Muhammad Jawadullah 3-45, Saghir Khan 2-36) by two wickets
[Cricinfo]
Some 360 bodies have been recovered and more than 1,400 people are missing across Nepal and China’s Tibet region after a huge collapse of mud and rock into a Himalayan river triggered catastrophic flooding across local towns and valleys, authorities have said.
Rescue teams waded through mud on Thursday searching for the missing, as authorities in Nepal said at least 359 people have been killed there.
At least three people have died in the neighbouring Tibet region.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang arrived at the mudslide site in Tibet on Thursday afternoon to “guide emergency rescue and relief work” a day after the disaster, state media reported.
Nepalese police and tourism officials said that more than 500 foreigners were among 910 people missing in Nepal.
Among the missing are tourists from more than two dozen countries: 177 are from India, 63 from the United States, 34 from Australia, 33 from the United Kingdom, and 25 from Canada.
Beijing’s foreign ministry also said nearly 100 Chinese nationals were among the missing in Nepal.
In Tibet’s Gyirong county, 558 people are reported missing, including 260 foreign nationals, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
Search and rescue operations are proving to be a “massive challenge” as just simply “getting to the affected areas … to try and recover the survivors”, is proving to be extremely difficult as the roads and bridges there have suffered extensive damage, said Al Jazeera’s Minelle Fernandez, reporting from the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu.
[Aljazeera]
India 503/9 decl (Devdutt Padikkal 117, Dhruv Jurel 115; Asitha Fernando 4-106, Prabath Jayasuriya 2-132) drew with Sri Lanka 290 (Sonal Dinusha 103, Pasindu Sooriyabandara 80; Prasidh Krishna 3-52, Manav Suthar 3-85) and 429/9 f/o (Sonal Dinusha 133*, Pasindu Sooriyabandara 92; Ravindra Jadeja 3-94, Manav Suthar 3-121)
Asif Khan the UAE batter, has been banned for 15 months after admitting to having tested positive for a banned substance – “a metabolite of mesterolone” – in an out-of-competition test conducted in September 2025, the ICC said in a statement on Thursday.
The statement said that Asif, 36, “had admitted the violation” of Article 2.1 of the ICC’s anti-doping code and accepted the period of ineligibility “pursuant to a case resolution agreement entered into with the World Anti-Doping Agency and the ICC”, which means there is no right to appeal on the part of the player.
The sanction is effective from September 8, 2025 and will run until December 7, 2026.
“Asif may return to training with a team or use the facilities of a club or other ICC Member organisation from 8 October 2026 but will only be eligible to play from 8 December,” the statement added. “The player’s individual results from 8 September 2025 until his provisional suspension on 29 December 2025 have been disqualified, along with all resulting consequences, including the loss of any medals, points, prize money or prizes.”
Asif, a former Pakistan Under-19 cricketer, made his UAE debut in March 2022 in an ODI against Oman in the ICC’s Cricket World Cup League 2. He turned out in 38 ODIs and 56 T20Is between then and September 2025.
The last three of those T20Is, against India, Oman and Pakistan in the T20 Asia Cup in 2025, came after September 8, and will be removed from his record.
[Cricinfo]
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