An excellent all-round performance in the field from the Dutch saw the UAE restricted to just 119-7, Roelof van der Merwe recording his best ever T20I figures of 2-10 from 4. Despite a couple of soft dismissals early and rather laborious accumulation in the middle overs, Ben Cooper's second T20I fifty saw the Netherlands cruise home in 17.1 overs.

A brisk start for the UAE driven by Faizan Asif might have had Peter Borren second-guessing his decision to insert the Emiratis, but Timm van der Gugten deprived him of partner Shahzad with a shorter ball shaping in, which Shahzad dutifully chopped down onto his stumps, and then held an excellent over-the-shoulder catch off the bowling of Malik to account for Asif.

Swapnil Patil looked to make the best of the remaining two powerplay overs, but was lucky to survive a bottom edge off Paul van Meekeren that raced to the rope but could have easily ruined his stumps. Patil would go on to top-score for the UAE with 34 off 33 balls, but the Dutch were entirely on top in the middle overs.

Van der Merwe and Rippon tied down the Emirati batsmen, and a couple of tidy overs from Peter Borren ramped up the pressure as overs 9 though 15 passed without a single boundary. The mounting pressure saw the inevitable wickets fall, Rippon the beneficiary as Anwar holed out at long off and Patil wandered across his stumps looking to reverse sweep only to be bowled behind his legs.

Despite entering the final four overs with six wickets in hand the UAE managed just 21 runs from them. Van der Merwe's accuracy and discipline was rewarded with the consecutive wickets of Fayyaz Ahmed and Abdul Shakoor, and Ahsan Malik saw off the last over at the cost of just five runs and a wicket, Naveed caught at mid-wicket - Borren making things unnecessarily difficult for himself but taking a fine one handed catch over his head.

With just 120 the target the Netherlands nonetheless managed to inject some slight tension into the chase, Myburgh and Barresi rather gifting their wickets early and Michael Swart batting with undue circumspection even in the rather forgiving circumstances.

But despite good early discipline in the field from the Emiratis and tidy bowling from Nasir Aziz and skipper Tauqir, 119 was never going to be enough. Cooper had the chase well in hand throughout despite Swart's travails at the other end. Though the pair seemed effectively pinned down in the middle overs, Tauqir even picking up a maiden over in the ninth over, the runs kept trickling in and a with wickets in hand for the Dutch the result was never in serious doubt.

Swart's eventual dismissal, looking to finally hit out only to be clean bowled slog-sweeping, was merely the signal for the floodgates to open. The innings having puttered along at about a run-a-ball for the first 14 overs, Cooper and Borren smashed the last 39 runs off just 17 deliveries, Cooper finishing unbeaten on exactly fifty from 38 balls, and Borren's 24 from 10 balls seeing the Dutch over the line with 17 balls to spare, finishing the game off in style with a lofted drive for six over the rope at wide long on.