Ben Foakes steered England Lions to the brink of a tense two-wicket victory against a United Arab Emirates XI in their last warm-up match before the Twenty20 series against Pakistan A, although it needed a Jake Ball boundary off the last ball to seal it.

Foakes, who had missed the previous two warm-up games because of injury, showed patience and intelligence in making 49, from 48 balls and including two boundaries, as the Lions made hard work of chasing a target of 132 for six.

The Surrey wicketkeeper-batsman came in with the Lions tottering at 25 for three, after a golden duck for captain James Vince and an unfortunate run out for Sam Billings.

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Fortunately Foakes kept his cool in the mid-afternoon heat and with five runs needed from the last over, he improvised a boundary off the first ball to take the Lions to the brink of victory.

Foakes was furious with himself when he holed out to long-on two balls later, and the tension built as Jamie Overton missed the fourth ball of the over, and the UAE wicketkeeper needed lengthy treatment.

Overton hit a single to midwicket to bring the scores level with one ball remaining, and Ball belted it over mid-off to seal the Lions win.

Earlier, Ball and Overton were the pick of the bowlers with two wickets apiece.

The Lions included four players from the England team they recently beat Pakistan 3-0 in their Twenty20 series with Vince and Billings joined by Stephen Parry and Reece Topley.