Cakewalk for India

Mirpur : India on Thursday maintained their all-win record by producing yet another resounding performance to thrash minnows United Arab Emirates by nine wickets in a lop- sided inconsequential round robin league match of the Asia Cup T20 cricket tournament, here.

The Indian juggernaut rolled on as they have now won nine out of the 10 T20 Inetrnationals played this year, a very good track record going into the ICC World T20.
Chasing a small target of 82, the Indians romped home in only 10.1 overs with Rohit Sharma hitting a flurry of boundaries in his 28-ball-39.

In all he hit seven fours and a six adding 43 for the opening stand with Shikhar Dhawan (16 not out), which incidentally is the highest for India for the first wicket in this tournament. Yuvraj Singh (25 no off 14 balls), promoted up the order at No 3 ahead of Virat Kohli, to got a decent knock in the middle.

He hit a few free-flowing boundaies including an effortless six off Mohammed Shahzad. Yuvraj finished the match off the first delivery of the 11th over with a boundary off Shahzad. Dhawan however did not look fully confident as he was tested by a few rising deliveries that deviated off the surface.

Earlier, India's reserve bench put up an impressive show to restrict UAE to a meagre 81 for nine after being asked to field. UAE's total is the second lowest by an international team without being bowled out.

Scoreboard

United Arab Emirates: Rohan Mustafa c Kohli b Pandya 11, Swapnil Patil c & b Kumar 1, Mohammad Shahza c Raina b Bumrah 0, Shaiman Anwar run out (Dhoni) 43, Muhammad Usman c Harbhajan b Negi 9, Amjad Javed c Negi b Harbhajan 0, Muhammad Kaleem c Pandya b Yuvraj 2, Farhad Tariq run out (Negi/Dhoni) 3, Mohammad Naveed c Negi b Kumar 5, Ahmed Raza not out 0, Qadeer Ahmed not out 0; Extras (lb 2, w5) 7; Total (nine wickets; 20 overs) 81; Fall of wickets: 1-1 (Patil, 2.4 overs), 2-2 (Mohammad Shahzad, 3.3), 3-25 (Rohan Mustafa, 8.4), 4-51 (Muhammad Usman, 12.5),5-53 (Amjad Javed, 13.2), 6-62 (Muhammad Kaleem, 15.5), 7-66 (Farhad Tariq, 16.6), 8-80 (Mohammad Naveed, 19.2), 9-81 (Shaiman Anwar, 19.5); Bowling: Bhuvneshwar Kumar 4-2-8-2, Jasprit Bumrah 4-0-23-1, Hardik Pandya 3-1-11-1, Harbhajan Singh 4-1-11-1, Pawan Negi 3-0-16-1, Yuvraj Singh 2-0-10-1; India: Rohit Sharma c Mohammad Naveed b Qadeer Ahmed 39, Shikhar Dhawan not out 16, Yuvraj Singh not out 25; Extras (w1,nb1) 2; Total (one wicket; 10.1 overs) 82; Fall of Wickets: 1-43 (Rohit Sharma, 5.5overs); Bowling: Mohammad Naveed 4-0-21-0, Amjad Javed 2-0-18-0, Qadeer Ahmed 2-0-23-1, Mohammad Shahzad 1.1-0-14-0, Rohan Mustafa 1-0-6-0