DHAKA: Captain Lasith Malinga took 4-26 to help Sri Lanka defend a moderate total and beat the United Arab Emirates by 14 runs in the Asia Cup on Thursday.

UAE raised a prospect of a shock by restricting Sri Lanka to 129-8, but the Malinga-led attack held the Emirates to 115-9.

Nuwan Kulasekara gave handy support to his new-ball partner by claiming 3-10.

Swapnil Patil top-scored for UAE with 37.

For Sri Lanka, openers Dinesh Chandimal smashed 50 and Tillakratne Dilshan added 27 to combine for 67 in the 10th over, after which the UAE put the brakes on them.

Skipper Amjad Javed had figures of 3-25.

Scoreboard

SRI LANKA:

D. Chandimal c Shahzad b Javed50 T. Dilshan c Usman b Javed27 M. Siriwardana c Haider b Javed6 D. Shanaka c Anwar b Naveed5 A. Mathews lbw b Mustafa8 S. Jayasuriya b Naveed10 C. Kapugedara c Raza b Shahzad10 N. Kulasekara c Patil b Shahzad7 D. Chameera not out1

EXTRAS (LB-1, W-4)5

TOTAL (for 8 wkts, 20 overs)129

FALL OF WKTS: 1-67, 2-79, 3-89, 4-98, 5-105, 6-113, 7-123, 8-129.

DID NOT BAT: R. Herath, L. Malinga.

BOWLING: Naveed 4-0-27-2 (1w), Ahmed 2-0-18-0, Javed 4-0-25-3 (1w), Shahzad 3-0-27-2, Raza 4-0-14-0 (1w), Mustafa 3-0-17-1 (1w).

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES:

Rohan Mustafa lbw b Malinga0 M. Kaleem c Mathews b Kulasekara7 Mohammad Shahzad b Malinga1 M. Usman c Kapugedara b Kulasekara6 Shaiman Anwar c Chandimal b Herath13 Swapnil Patil c and b Malinga37 Saqlain Haider c Chandimal b Herath1 Amjad Javed c Kapugedara b Kulasekara13 M. Naveed c Mathews b Malinga10 Ahmed Raza not out9 Qadeer Ahmed not out2

EXTRAS (B-1, LB-2, W-6, NB-7)16

TOTAL (for 9 wkts, 20 overs)115

FALL OF WKTS: 1-0, 2-7, 3-14, 4-16, 5-38, 6-47, 7-85, 8-93, 9-99.

BOWLING: Malinga 4-0-26-4 (3w, 1nb), Kulasekara 4-1-10-3 (1w), Mathews 3.4-0-24-0 (1w), Herath 4-0-22-2, Chameera 3.2-0-22-0 (1w, 6nb), Siriwardana 1-0-8-0.

RESULT: Sri Lanka wins by 14 runs.

UMPIRES: Anil Chaudhary (India) and Sharfuddoula (Bangladesh).

TV UMPIRE: Anisur Rahman (Bangladesh).

MATCH REFEREE: Richie Richardson (West Indies).

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2016