PAK vs UAE Asia Cup 2025: Pakistan defeated the host UAE by 41 runs in their Asia Cup match and have also qualified for the Super 4 stage. But the preparation for this match was not direct. It was surrounded by uncertainty as to whether the Men in Green would play this match or not in Dubai.

This controversy began during their last match against arch-rivals India, where the Men in Blue didn't shake hands with Pakistan, and that left them embarrassed. In reply, the team management planned to boycott the rest of the tournament, and that led to the match against the host looking doubtful.

This whole drama went on till the start of the match, where the Salman Ali Agha-led side didn't reach the venue for the match. Reports started emerging about the boycott, but the match did finally begin as Pakistan reached the stadium one hour late. The team management went to the ICC twice for match referee Andy Pycroft's removal, but the ICC didn't agree to their terms.

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Since their requests were rejected by the ICC, they had to play the match. While batting first, they were seen struggling, but Fakhar Zaman's fifty and Shaheen Afridi's gritty knock helped the team post a respectable target of 146 runs. The host did try to put up a valiant fight, but their efforts went in vain. They couldn't perform consistently during the middle overs, and that's why they lost the match.

With this win, Pakistan has also qualified for the Super 4 stage. They will face arch-rivals India once again in Dubai on Sunday. It will be interesting to see what new drama they will bring up before the high-octane match. They lost to India by seven wickets in their last match, and once again, the Suryakumar Yadav-led side will have an upper hand.

Playing XIs of Pakistan and UAE

Pakistan (Playing XI): Saim Ayub, Sahibzada Farhan, Mohammad Haris (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Salman Agha (c), Khushdil Shah, Hasan Nawaz, Mohammad Nawaz, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf, Abrar Ahmed

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United Arab Emirates (Playing XI): Alishan Sharafu, Muhammad Waseem (c), Asif Khan, Muhammad Zohaib, Harshit Kaushik, Rahul Chopra (wk), Dhruv Parashar, Haider Ali, Muhammad Rohid Khan, Simranjeet Singh, Junaid Siddique