In an almost unbelievably exciting climax to the second day of their Intercontinental Cup against The Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates took first-innings points by the narrowest of margins, moments before they were all out just before the scheduled close.

The Emiratis had seemed set to take a clear lead for much of a tightly-fought day’s cricket, but Edgar Schiferli wreaked havoc with the new ball, picking up five wickets to finish off the UAE innings.

From 281 for six, the home side suddenly found themselves 281 for nine, still seven runs short of the lead with the final pair together.

On 285, last man Fahad Alhashmi edged Schiferli to Daan van Bunge at slip, but the catch went down and, even more disastrously for the Dutch, the ball ran to the boundary to give the UAE the points.

Schiferli had his revenge next ball, bowling Alhashmi, but the UAE had achieved their initial target.

Like the Dutch innings on the first day, the UAE performance saw several batsmen get a start, and again there were two half-centuries. But no-one was able to build a really big innings, and the Dutch bowlers picked up wickets regularly enough to keep them in the hunt.

Two substantial partnerships formed the foundation of the UAE innings: openers Amjad Ali and Arshad Ali put on 69 in a painstaking stand before Mohammed Kashif made the breakthrough, Alexei Kervezee catching Arshad when he had made 34, and then Amjad and skipper Saqib Ali added 68 for the third wicket to take the total to 143.

Saqib’s knock completely changed the tempo, as his 58 came off just 73 balls, with eight fours and one six. Amjad, by contrast, faced 190 balls in making his 55, with only four boundaries, before he was fourth out with the score on 186.

Both fell to leg-spinner Van Bunge, who finished with two for 32, while Kashif had figures of two for 84.

With the Emiratis still 101 in arrears, The Netherlands needed a further quick breakthrough to seize the initiative, but valuable innings of from Khurram Khan (45 from 55 balls), Rahid Khan (36) and Nizel Fernandes (26) got them to within 23 of their target by the time Jeroen Smits took the new ball in the 85th over.

That was the cue for Schiferli’s heroic effort, but with Mohammed Tauqir contributing a not-out 16 which was worth infinitely more in the context of the match, it all came down to that one moment of drama.

The match could hardly be more evenly poised, and with two days left The Netherlands now have nothing to lose – they will require a huge effort from their batsmen on Saturday if they are to put pressure on the Emiratis in a final-day run-chase. For the home side, another good bowling performance would give them a good chance of a first 20-point win in the competition.