Pakistan v UAE Preview, Match 25, Napier

While Pakistan will begin by looking for a simple win, it also knows that there was every chance of a logjam for the final two qualifying spots from Pool B. India and South Africa are sitting pretty, but Pakistan will certainly be in competition with Ireland and West Indies, if it gets enough points on the board. This will bring net run-rate into play, and on this count Pakistan is far behind at -1.373, lower even than UAE. This means that it really needs a couple of big wins, and it must be thinking that UAE provide the most realistic possibility of achieving this.

For the UAE team, this match is a major opportunity as well. As many as nine players in the UAE squad are from Pakistan and the best game to win would have been the India one. However, the gulf between the two teams was huge in that encounter, with a rampant India blowing its less experienced opponent away. Pakistan is hardly in a similar situation, and if it starts the game badly, UAE will believe it has a chance to exert some pressure and try and force the mistake.

A major strength of UAE has been the manner in which its batting has fired when it has had the chance to bat first, a couple of games notwithstanding. UAE has consistently looked like making something in excess of 270, which gives it a fighting chance.

Squads
Pakistan: Nasir Jamshed, Ahmed Shehzad, Haris Sohail, Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), Umar Akmal (wk), Shahid Afridi, Sohaib Maqsood, Wahab Riaz, Sohail Khan, Rahat Ali, Mohammad Irfan, Ehsan Adil, Sarfraz Ahmed, Yasir Shah, Younis Khan.

UAE: Amjad Ali, Andri Berenger, Krishna Chandran, Khurram Khan, Swapnil Patil (wk), Shaiman Anwar, Rohan Mustafa, Fahad Alhashmi, Nasir Aziz, Amjad Javed, Mohammad Naveed, Mohammad Tauqir (capt), Manjula Guruge, Kamran Shazad, Saqlain Haider.