Ninety-Five for One, Then Four for Thirteen: Ibrar Ahmad and Adeeb Usmani Close Out the Series for the UAE

At drinks on Wednesday, Malaysia were 89 for 1 and their captain was on 46. Syed Aziz and Nazmus Sakib had added 90 for the second wicket, the powerplay had brought 68, and eight wickets were in hand. This was the series-levelling position Malaysia had come looking for.

They made 156 for 9. From 95 for 1 in the 11th over, eight wickets fell for 59 runs, and the man who did most of the damage was Ibrar Ahmad, whose 4-0-40-0 on Monday became 4-0-13-4 two days later. Then Adeeb Usmani opened the chase and was still there at the end, with 75 from 45 balls, and the UAE had the series with a game to spare.

Ibrar Ahmad set the tone early and came back to break the innings. He had Muhammad Haziq Aiman caught by Sharafu with the first ball of the second over, then watched Sakib and Aziz take 90 off the next 57 balls. Adeeb Usmani ended that stand, having Sakib stumped for 37 at 95 for 2, and Ibrar did the rest: Virandeep Singh and Sharvin Muniandy off consecutive balls at 111, then the captain, caught by Harpreet Singh for 65. He also ran out Muhammad Akram. Ibrar and Haider Ali bowled six overs between them for 23 runs; the other 14 went for 129.

The chase was far calmer than Monday's, when the UAE were 67 for 4. Tanish Suri's 26 from 16 put on 40 with Usmani inside five overs, Sharafu made 18 before Virandeep bowled him at 68 for 2, and at drinks the UAE were 74 for 2, needing 83 from 60 balls. Usmani, on 26 at that point, reached fifty from 33 balls and scored 49 more runs after the break. Harpreet Singh's 32 from 23 gave him company in a 76-run stand from 45 balls, and Akshdeep Nath was there when it finished in the 18th over.

For ten overs Malaysia played the innings they needed. Sakib hit three sixes in his 24 balls, Aziz hit eight fours, and 50 came up in 5.1 overs. Aziz's 65 is Malaysia's highest score of the series. But the last ten overs brought 67 runs for eight wickets, and wickets five to nine fell between 132 and 154 in exactly four overs. Muhammad Akram's two sixes in a nine-ball 15 were the late flourish before he was run out by Ibrar.

With the ball, Virandeep Singh took two wickets, including a return catch to remove Harpreet Singh at 144, but by then the UAE needed 13. Malaysia used seven bowlers and none of them went for less than seven an over; Pavandeep Singh's two overs cost 29. Defending 156, they needed the UAE to lose wickets in clusters, and the UAE's three wickets fell at 4.3, 9 and 16.3 overs, never two close together.

Another morning start at the Bayuemas, and another win for the side batting second. The numbers say the pitch was not the difference. Both teams scored exactly 102 runs in boundaries — Malaysia through 15 fours and seven sixes, the UAE through 12 fours and nine sixes — and both scored exactly 21 runs between overs seven and ten. Malaysia were actually 15 runs ahead at halfway, 89 for 1 against 74 for 2. The difference was wickets: Malaysia lost eight in their second ten overs, the UAE lost one in 7.4.

Ibrar Ahmad had a strong case, but Usmani did three jobs. He bowled four overs for 23 and broke the 90-run stand by having Sakib stumped. He kept wicket in place of Tanish Suri from the 16th over. And he batted through the whole chase: 75 not out from 45 balls, four fours and six sixes, 52 of his runs in boundaries. On Monday he hit three fours and was out for a four-ball 12 in the first over. On Wednesday he stayed in until the job was done.

Our preview leaned towards the UAE on depth and experience, and on that call it was right: the UAE won comfortably, Ibrar Ahmad, whom the preview named, took 4 for 13, and Tanish Suri, also named, made a brisk 26. The rest of the argument does not hold up as well. We wrote that home advantage at the Bayuemas was the deciding factor more often than not and that the gap was narrower than it looked on paper. The UAE have now won both matches with 19 and 14 balls to spare. The preview also said nothing about Adeeb Usmani, who won the match. Right result, wrong reasoning on the margin.

The series is gone, but the 3rd T20I is at the same ground on September 17 (07:30 IST), and Malaysia are playing to avoid a 3-0 defeat. Their top order has now got going in both matches — 60 for 1 after six overs on Monday, 68 for 1 on Wednesday — so the question is whether they can bat through the second ten overs. For the UAE, Ibrar Ahmad went from 0 for 40 to 4 for 13 in two days, and Usmani has shown what he can do as an opener. Aayan Afzal Khan, who took 3 for 18 in the first match, bowled only one over here and it went for 22.