Opener Tanish Suri, skipper Muhammad Waseem and pace bowler Muhammad Jawadullah all batted with oomph as UAE beat Kuwait by 11 runs to win the Gulf T20I Championship for the third time in a row at Dubai on Monday.
Waseem had the toss and took the bat. The Pakistan-born batsman struck a 28-ball 51 and a 104-run opening stand with Suri (77 off 47 balls) in 10.3 overs.
At one point the UAE had a chance to post a 200-plus, but none of their middle order batsmen were able to seize upon the fantastic start from Waseem and Suri.
Kuwait came back to restrict the visitors to 168 for eight over 20.
It looked to be all on the cards till the 19th over of the Kuwaiti innings when the Gulf rivals requiring just 15 runs in the last six balls with five wickets left.
Delightful knocks from Muhammad Umar (59 off 44 balls) and Usman Patel (40 off 29 balls) kept Kuwait in the hunt.
Yet it was Jawadullah (3/24)’s brilliant last over that gave UAE the lead in the final, who had held on for 15 and bundled out three wickets in six overs.
The UAE were still in first place with six points from three matches in the six-team tournament.
Bahrain (119/2) meanwhile dismissed Saudi Arabia (113/9) by eight wickets in the other game on Monday.
Bahrain are second with four points from three matches.
Oman (two points), Kuwait (two points), Saudi Arabia (two points) are third, fourth and fifth respectively in the tournament and Qatar still haven’t opened an account.
The winner and runner-ups will meet in the final on December 21.