Asia Cup T20: Pakistan can't afford to make mistakes against big teams, says Shahid Afridi

Malik and Akmal played sensibly to take Pakistan home.

New Delhi: Riding on unbeaten half-centuries by Shoaib Malik and Umar Akmal, Pakistan beat minnows UAE by seven wickets in the Asia Cup T20 on Monday.

When Pakistan came in to chase 129, UAE's pacer Amjad Javed wracked havoc and reduced them to 17 for three, within four overs.

But Malik (638) and Akmal (50*) played sensibly in the middle and paced their innings to perfection to take Pakistan home.

After the match, Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi said his team must cut down on mistakes to have any chance of beating the bigger teams in the Asia Cup.

"Today's game showed that you just can't relax in this format, you can't relax in the dressing room. We are making some mistakes and you can't afford that against the bigger teams," Afridi said in post match ceremony.

Afridi also praised the way UAE recovered from the early jolts to take their score to 129.

"I told my batsmen just play normal cricket, don't go for big runs. We thought after we took three wickets we thought we would get them out for 90-100 but they played well and some shots went off for them ..(off the edges). They played well in the end. We would have like to have a match like this before playing India," added Afridi.