Mirpur: Sri Lanka overcame their batting&nbsp;failure with a disciplined bowling performance to beat United&nbsp;Arab Emirates by 14 runs in a round robin league encounter of&nbsp;the Asia Cup T20, here today.
Put into bat by UAE, the defending World T20 champions&nbsp;could manage only 129 for eight in 20 overs with only Dinesh&nbsp;Chandimal (50) making a significant contribution.
<img src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/2016/feb/malinga-t20.jpg" alt="Lasith Malinga" />Sri Lankan cricket captain Lasith Malinga reacts after the dismissal of the United Arab Emirates cricketer Rohan Mustafa during their match at the Asia Cup T20 tournament at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka on Thursday. Pic/AFP
But skipper Lasith Malinga dealt twin blows in the very&nbsp;first over with two block-hole deliveries to peg back UAE, who&nbsp;only managed 115 for 9 in their stipulated overs. The target&nbsp;was a small one but UAE&iquest;s inexperience against big teams was&nbsp;the main factor in not being able to chase down a small total.
In a match that never rose to dizzy heights, the only&nbsp;notable incident was pacer Dushmantha Chameera being barred&nbsp;from completing the final over of the innings for bowling two&nbsp;beamers which is illegal as per rules. It was Angelo Mathews&nbsp;who completed the formalities.
The batsmen, even after recovering from the top-order&nbsp;damage, never went for the chase.
Within the first five overs, UAE lost four wickets with&nbsp;seasoned duo of Malinga (4/26 in 4 overs) and Nuwan Kulasekara&nbsp;(3/10 in 4 overs) sharing the spoils. With half of the team&nbsp;being back in the dug-out before the total reaching even 40,&nbsp;it was virtually impossible for the qualifiers to make a match&nbsp;out of it.
It started with the very first delivery that left-handed&nbsp;opener Rehan Mustafa (0) faced. Malinga bowled one that was&nbsp;full and swung into batsman&iquest;s pads. It would have crashed into&nbsp;middle and leg and the decision was an easy one for the&nbsp;umpire.
In that very over, Malinga dealt another telling blow&nbsp;removing UAE's best batsman Mohammed Shahzad (1) with another&nbsp;full delivery that went through his defences.&nbsp;
Muhammad Kaleem (7) tried to clear mid-off but Angelo&nbsp;Mathews took a simple catch to give Kulasekara his first&nbsp;wicket. UAE were in tatters at 16 for four when Muhammed Usman&nbsp;(6) tried a hoick off Kulasekara but Chamara Kapugedara took a&nbsp;regulation catch at first slip. At that moment, the match was&nbsp;virtually over but Swapnil Patil (37) to save his team the&nbsp;blushes. But Patil did not play too many big shots even when&nbsp;he was set. None of the other batsmen crossed 15-run mark for&nbsp;UAE.
Rangana Herath (2/22) got a couple of middle-order&nbsp;wickets and kept the pressure on UAE.
However, UAE will take some positives out of this&nbsp;match, especially a good performance from their bowlers led by&nbsp;skipper Amjad Javed (3/25), who got the first three Sri Lankan&nbsp;wickets including Chandimal, Tillakaratne Dilshan (27) and&nbsp;Milinda Siriwardana (6).
Chandimal scored 50 off 39 balls with seven fours and&nbsp;one six, adding 68 runs for the opening stand with Dilshan.
Sri Lanka were 72 for one after first 10 overs but&nbsp;some poor shot selection saw them score only 57 in the next&nbsp;10, losing seven more wickets. After the openers, none of the&nbsp;Lankan batsmen could cross 10-run mark. However the bowlers&nbsp;did the job for them on the day.

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Sri Lanka overcame their batting&nbsp;failure with a disciplined bowling performance to beat United&nbsp;Arab Emirates by 14 runs in a round robin league encounter of&nbsp;the Asia Cup T20 on Thursday

Asia Cup: Sri Lanka survive UAE scare

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Asia Cup: Sri Lanka survive UAE scare

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