West Indies must chase down 176 to beat the UAE and keep their hopes of a World Cup quarter-final place alive.
Jason Holder (4-27) made early inroads in Napier, removing Andri Berenger in the third over before taking the wickets of Krishna Chandran and Amjad Ali in the space of three deliveries.
Fellow paceman Jerome Taylor (3-36) also proved lethal with the new ball, dismissing Khurram Khan and Shaiman Anwar to leave the UAE at 26-5 and giving the Caribbean side hope of a comfortable victory.
Holder took his fourth wicket of the innings, bowling wicketkeeper Swapnil Patil as the Windies appeared to be taking the threat on bad weather out of the equation.
Amjad Javed (56) and Nasir Aziz (60) led a batting recovery as the Windies struggled to wrap up the tail.
Their partnership of 107 was eventually broken by Andre Russell (2-20) and the Windies went on to bowl out the UAE, but not before they could post a reasonable total to defend.
West Indies need to beat UAE and hope that Ireland lose their final Pool B game against Pakistan to qualify for the last eight with a superior net run rate.
