Suri, Waseem, Jawadullah shine as UAE beat Kuwait

Opener Tanish Suri, skipper Muhammad Waseem and pace bowler Muhammad Jawadullah delivered superlative performances as the UAE recorded their third straight victory in the Gulf T20I Championship, with a fantastic 11-run win over Kuwait in Dubai on Monday.

Waseem won the toss and elected to bat. The Pakistan-born opener smashed a 28-ball 51 and shared a 104-run opening partnership with Suri (77 off 47 balls) in just 10.3 overs.

At one stage, the UAE looked like getting a 200-plus score, but none of their middle-order batters could capitalise on the fantastic start provided by Waseem and Suri.

Kuwait fought back to restrict the home team to 168 for eight in 20 overs.

The match was tantalisingly poised until the 19th over of the Kuwaiti innings as the Gulf rivals needed only 15 runs in the last six balls with five wickets in hand.

Fine knocks from Muhammad Umar (59 off 44 balls) and Usman Patel (40 off 29 balls) kept Kuwait in the hunt.

But a magnificent last over from Jawadullah (3/24) helped UAE win the thriller as the pacer defended 15 runs and claimed three wickets in six balls.

The UAE remained on top with six points from three matches in the six-team tournament.

Meanwhile, Bahrain (119/2) beat Saudi Arabia (113/9) by eight wickets in the other match on Monday.

Bahrain are currently in second place with four points from three matches.

Oman (two points), Kuwait (two points), Saudi Arabia (two points) are third, fourth and and fifth respectively in the tournament, while Qatar have yet to open their account.

The top two teams will play the final on December 21.