A dominating performance by the bowlers laid the foundation for a scintillating half-century from Opener Abhishek Sharma as India comfortably defeated UAE by seven wickets to reach the semifinals of the Emerging Teams Asia Cup here on Monday.
This is the Indian team's second win in as many matches in the tournament, having beaten traditional rivals Pakistan by seven runs in the opener.
Abhishek blasted 58 in 24 balls before Ayush Badoni finished the formalities of a run-chase of 108 with a six and four. India won with as many as 55 balls still left to be bowled.
While Abhishek hit five fours and four sixes in his blazing knock, skipper Tilak Varma missed out on a big one after making 21 in 18 balls.
UAE choose to bat and was bowled out for 107 in 16.5 overs.
The decision quite backfired as UAE lost both openers: Mayank Kumar (10) and Aryansh Sharma (1) inside the first two overs.
Seamer Rasikh Salam dismissed three batters in his opening over, reducing UAE to 40 for 5 inside the power play.
Salam was declared the Player of the Match for returning excellent figures of 3/15 with the ball. There were also a couple of strikes from Ramandeep Singh (2/7) as India bundled out UAE with more than three overs remaining in their innings.
UAE captain Basil Hameed (22 off 12 balls) and Rahul Chopra (50 off 50 balls) steadied the ship with a 41-run partnership before Abhishek broke the partnership, getting the former caught off his own bowling.
That UAE managed to cross 100 was largely due to Chopra's effort.
India are currently on top of Group B with four points, and take on hosts Oman in their final group game on Wednesday.
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