There were some champagne moments for the UAE in their second game of the World Cup “first round” but in the end Sri Lanka were too good for them and were easy winners.
UAE captain CP Rizwan won the toss and asked Sri Lanka to bat first. They scored 91 from the first 11 overs, led by Pathum Nissanka with Dhananjaya de Silva also chipping in with 33 from 21 balls before he was out - the second wicket to fall - from the first ball of the twelfth over.
Karthik Meiyappan took a hat-trick in the 15th over as Sri Lanka went from 117-2 to 117-5. Nissanka was still in though and it took a sensational diving catch by Basil Hameed to finally dismiss him one ball from the end of the innings.
There was one more highlight for the UAE as Junaid Siddique hit a huge six that sailed right over the roof of the stadium, but by then it was the 17th over and the UAE were nine down. They were bowled out for just 73, losing by 79 runs.
UAE now must beat Namibia on Thursday if they are to have any hope of reaching the Super 12 stage, and even that would require a Netherlands win over Sri Lanka.