Amjad Ali and Khurram Khan both hit half centuries as the UAE beat Northern Territory by four wickets to claim their first win of the ICC High Performance Programme (HPP) tour of Australia.

Having put their hosts into bat at the Marrara stadium in Darwin, the UAE managed to bowl out Northern Territory for 202 in 45 of the allocated 50 overs.

Ali and Khan then led their team to victory, chasing down the target with 6.2 overs to spare to hand Aaqib Javed's side a valuable victory ahead of their first match against international opposition – Papua New Guinea – at the same venue tomorrow.

Kamran Shazad (3-24) and Mohammad Naveed (3-35) did the damage with the ball for the UAE, while Mohammad Shahzad also impressed with 2-36 from his 10 overs.

Matthew Sampson-Barnes' 73 from 106 balls was the highlight of Northern Territory's innings but only he, opener Solomon Mire (37) and captain Leigh Drennan (45) managed to reach double figures thanks to some ruthlessly economical bowling from the UAE.

It was Ali (69) and Khan (51) who took control from there on out with the pair putting on 83 for the second wicket.

Khan's return to form will be particularly pleasing for Javed who had handed captaincy duties over to 23-year-old Andri Berenger for the match which seemed to free up Khan to focus on his batting.

While wickets fell at steady intervals after that second-wicket partnership, wicket-keeper Swapnil Patel (32*) was there at the end to strike the winning runs as UAE ended on 206-6.