United Arab Emirates 168/8 (20 overs)
Saudi Arabia 115 (19.2 overs)
UAE were left to rue a solitary loss to Hong Kong as they missed out on the chance to qualify for next year's ICC World Twenty20 qualifier, to be held on their home turf, by net run rate.
A 53-run win over bottom-placed Saudi Arabia in their Group B match of the Asian Twenty20 Cup today was still not enough for them to overtake Nepal who joined table-toppers Hong Kong in the semi-finals as the best two placed teams in the group.
Nepal had beaten Saudi Arabia by 95 runs yesterday and UAE were left with a tough task to better that.
The UAE had Vikrant Shetty to thank for that half chance as they compiled a target of 169 in their 20 overs. Openers Amjad Ali and Faizan Asif provided a good start and the UAE were 54 for one in less than five overs but then started losing wickets at regular intervals in their efforts to score big, and quick enough, to improve their net run rate.
Shetty managed to keep one end intact, and finished unbeaten on 63 runs from 51 balls with three fours and four sixes.
In their reply, Hammad Saeed proved to be the stumbling block for the national side as the opener's 63 was enough to stall their attempts to effect a collapse.
Captain Kurram Khan's tight spell of three wickets for just 12 runs and two wickets each by pacemen Shadeep Silva and Ahmed Raza eventually proved too little too late.
