A very good half-centuries from United Arab Emirates openers Rohan Mustafa and Ashfaq Ahmed, followed by a fine bowling performance Mohammad Naveed, set up UAE's 56-run victory against Papua New Guinea at the Harare Sports Club. Earlier, PNG won the toss and elected to bowl first. UAE skipper Mustafa was involved in a 91-run stand with Ashfaq to provide a good platform. Although they lost regular wickets after that, skipper Mustafa's smash 95 runs was the cornerstone of UAE's total of 221 runs before they were bowled out in the final over. Norman Vanua's four-wicket haul helped PNG restrict UAE's batting but their own batting let them down in a revised chase of 170 in 28 overs. Naveed accounted for the top four in quick succession to leave PNG reeling at 23 for 4. Although the lower order came up with a better fight, they had too much to do and PNG eventually folded for 113 runs with Naveed bagging the final wicket to finish with his maiden five wickets in his ODIs career.

Brief scores: UAE 221 in 49.4 overs (Rohan Mustafa 95, Ashfaq Ahmed 50; Norman Vanua 4-39) beat Papua New Guinea 113 in 25.5 overs (Charles Amini 24; Mohammad Naveed 5-28) by 56 runs (DLS Method).