Captain Lasith Malinga took 4-26 to help Sri Lanka defend a moderate total of 129 and beat the UAE by 14 runs in the Twenty20 Asia Cup competition on Thursday.
The UAE raised the prospect of a shock win by restricting Sri Lanka to 9-129, but the Malinga-led attack held the Emirates to 9-115.
Nuwan Kulasekara gave handy support to new-ball partner Malinga with 3-10.
Malinga undermined the UAE's chase in the first over, when he trapped opener Rohan Mustafa, and bowled the latter's replacement, Mohammad Shahzad.
The UAE recovered thanks to Swapnil Patil, who top-scored with 37 off 36 balls, and lifted his team to 6-85, needing 45 more runs in 21 balls.
But Malinga got Patil caught and bowled, and ended the UAE's hopes.
Earlier, Sri Lanka openers Dinesh Chandimal, who smashed 50, and Tilkaratne Dilshan, who added 27, combined for 68 inside 10 overs.
But after they were out, the UAE put the brakes on Sri Lanka.
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