Bangladesh got off to a poor start in the ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup 2018 as United Arab Emirates (UAE) registered a convincing  97 runs victory against them in Karachi yesterday. In other match of the day, Pakistan thrashed Hong Kong by 225 runs. UAE won the toss and opted to bat first. UAE’s opening pair settled down nicely to assemble a solid 102 runs partnership. Mosaddek Hossain broke the partnership when Rohan Mustafa was caught by Nazmul Hossain Shanto in the last ball of the 22nd over. Rohan Mustafa made 40 of 70 balls. UAE’s another opener Ashfaq Ahmed then developed a partnership of 58 runs with wicket keeper Ghulam Shabber. Ashfaq Ahmed scored the highest 98 of 93 balls before giving his wicket to Khaled Ahmed while Ghulam Shabber went on to score 52 of 57 balls, second highest knock for UAE. Bangladesh took wickets in regular intervals to dismiss UAE for 267 runs in 49.4 overs. Shoriful Islam and Khaled Ahmed shared seven wickets among them. Shoriful took four wickets while Khaled took three wickets.

Coming on the field to bat, Bangladesh lost the wicket of opener Zakir Hasan early in the sixth over into the match. Zakir made only 3 runs of 12 balls before becoming a victim to Qadeer Ahmed. Early breakthrough gave UEA the much needed confidence to hammer harder on Bangladesh’s batting line. Nazmul Hossain Shanto gave wicket away to UAE’s Left arm spinner Ahmed Reza with 8 of 19 balls. Opener Mizanur Rahman tried to build resilience but failed as he got out on 43 of 62 in 19.4 overs. Mizanur scored the highest runs for Bangladesh and after his departure other wickets also fell like dominos. At the end, Bangladesh were all out on 170 runs in just 36.5 overs. Ahmed Reza took four wickets for UAE.

In other match, Pakistan blew off Hong Kong by giving a mammoth target of 366 runs. Pakistan reached that score riding on two remarkable centuries from Sahibzada Farhan and Ali Imran. Sahibzada played a brilliant knock of 130 of 125 balls while Ali scored 107 of 105 runs. Also Pakistan pacer Mohammad Ilyas snatched a hat-trick grabbing 5 wickets in total.

ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup 2018 is currently being held in Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Eight teams are participating in the tournament including five under-23 age level teams of Test nations and three top associate teams from Asia (where four players above age 23 are allowed in each U23 team in the squad of 15).