Papua New Guinea have lost their Intercontinental Cup cricket match to an in-form United Arab Emirates in Abu Dhabi.
An unbeaten century from Lega Siaka stop the nine-wicket defeat which broke an over three year drought of first class victories for UAE.
PNG had gone into the match favourites, despite a 2-1 loss in their One Day series, but never recovered from a first innings capitulation when they were bowled out for 194.
UAE gained a 247-run first-innings lead, courtesy of two maiden first class centuries from Muhammad Usman and Saqlain Haider.
PNG will need to recover quickly if they want to win the Twenty20 series Photo: PNG Cricket
Barramundi spinner Mahuru Dai worked hard and took his best figures of 4 for 126.
PNG managed to make the home team bat again, thanks to Siaka, who scored 142 runs or nearly half of his team's 286 second innings total.
But it took UAE just six overs to bag the 40 runs they needed for victory.
The two sides will now take part in a three match Twenty20 series.
PNG are now in fourth place on the I-Cup points table with two rounds to play.
