Ghulam Shabbir’s half-century and Rohan Mustafa’s five-wicket haul went in vain as Canada stunned the UAE by 23 runs in their World Cricket League Division Two clash on Friday.

The UAE had gone into their match at Windhoek, Namibia, buoyed by an impressive 218 thrashing over Kenya on Thursday but they were unable to replicate the result against the Canadians.

Set 209 to win, the UAE would have fancied their chances of reaching the target but their batsmen struggled to make an impact. Only four players reached double figures, with Shabbir top-scoring with 55 from 92 deliveries.

Despite returning to the field after coming off for a thumb injury, skipper Mustafa was unable to save his team as the UAE were all out for 186.

Mustafa, who took 5-34 earlier in the game, lamented the batting performance but backed his team to bounce back strongly and keep their hopes of claiming the top two spots for the World Cup Qualifiers.

“The batsmen went for some shots which we should not have gone for,” said the 29-year-old. “I think it was easy to chase 209 and there was no big required run-rate. The boys should learn from that because we don’t have many more chances (if we want to qualify). We are all quite upset and I think we’ll come back hard.”

He added: “I think that not to reach 209 was quite frustrating for us as a team. The boys are really upset but we should not think too much about this defeat. We should think positively and forget the negativity of this game.”

The UAE will next face Nepal on Sunday.