One-off T20I: Bowlers, D’Arcy Short lead Australia to seven-wicket win over UAE

Australia made short work of UAE in the one-off T20I, with D’Arcy short compiling an unbeaten 68 off 53 balls, leading Australia to a seven-wicket win over UAE at Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi on Monday.

Australia made short work of UAE in the one-off T20I, with D’Arcy Short compiling an unbeaten 68 off 53 balls, leading his team to a seven-wicket win at Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi on Monday.

After bowlers restricted UAE to 117/6, Australia chased down the target with relative ease in 16.1 overs, Opening bowlers Billy Stanlake and Nathan Coulter-Nile claimed 2/20 each while Andrew Tye, a tad expensive, returned 1/29 in his four overs.

For UAE, middle-order batsman Shaiman Anwar held the UAE innings together with a 44-ball 41, after his team were tottering at 0/2 and then 17/3 early on.

Anwar combined with Rameez Shahzad (22) for a stand of 53 runs for the fourth wicket after Coulter-Nile removed opener Ashfaq Ahmed in the first over, followed by the wickets of skipper Rohan Mustafa and Chirag Suri by Stanlake. Mohammad Naveed’s 13-ball 27 pushed the UAE total past the 100-run mark, but it eventually proved little.

In reply, Australia lost skipper Aaron Finch (1) early to Amir Hayat. Hayat then proceeded to remove Chris Lynn for 20 but Glenn Maxwell got together with Short to add 43 runs for the third wicket. He was dismissed for 18 by Imran Haider. Short though motored along and scored his fifth T20I fifty to take Australia to victory. Debutant Ben McDermott remained unbeaten on 10.

Brief Scores: Australia 119/3 (D’Arcy Short 68*; Amir Hayat 2/26) beat UAE 117/6 (Shaiman Anwar 41; Billy Stanlake 2/20) by seven wickets.