Ireland lose to UAE in warm-up before T20 World Cup qualifiers

Ireland fell to defeat in Oman despite Craig Young's four wickets

Ireland were beaten by 13 runs by the United Arab Emirates in their penultimate warm-up match before their T20 World Cup qualifiers.

Craig Young took four wickets to limit the UAE to 178-5 in their innings.

However, despite 42 from captain Andrew Balbirnie, Ireland could not overhaul their opponents and fell to defeat in Al Amarat, Oman.

Ireland face the UAE, Bahrain and Germany in qualifying from 18-21 February.

Young was the stand-out bowler for the Irish attack, taking 4-28 from his four overs, but Ireland were left to rue a below par fielding performance and the last four overs that cost 49 runs.

Needing 179 for victory, the Irish batters started with positive intent - despite losing talisman Paul Stirling in the first over, run out in a mix-up with Balbirnie.

Gareth Delany's 40 from 20 balls and Balbirnie's 42 from 27 balls gave the top order the required momentum, however, a familiar tale then ensued with the middle order failing to find the boundary regularly and an increasing run rate required mounting pressure on each incoming batter.

Despite being 67-2 after the powerplay, Ireland's scoring rate dropped noticeably over the next six overs thanks in large part to the spin of Palaniapan Meiyappan (2-23) and Ahmed Raza (0-25) who put the brakes on with accurate bowling and variations of pace.

Lorcan Tucker sparkled briefly for his 22 from 16 balls, and Curtis Campher played a steady hand for his 40, but the middle order could not lift the rate when required and the Men in Green fell 13 runs short.

Ireland faces Nepal on Monday in their final warm-up game before the pivotal qualifiers.