The United States, who gave India a scare in their first match, hammered the Netherlands in Chennai while the UAE made a strong comeback to beat Canada
The United States have thrashed the Netherlands by 93 runs to break their duck at the Twenty20 World Cup, thanks to Saiteja Mukkamalla’s 79 and Harmeet Singh’s devastating four-wicket haul.
With the victory, the US moved up to third in their group behind India and Pakistan, having played a game more, while the Netherlands are fourth, also with two points but behind the Americans on net run rate.
Put in to bat after losing the toss, the US smashed an imposing 6-196 in their 20 overs on Friday before dismissing the Netherlands for 103 as Harmeet (4-21) produced the best figures for an American in the World Cup to pick up the player of the match award.
“When I first saw the wicket in the first innings, the ball was holding quite a bit, even when I went into bat. So the plan was to spin the ball and in the powerplay when I bowled, it did grip from ball one,” Harmeet said.
“That’s the chat we had in the middle innings, that there is assistance if we look to spin. So I think the plan was whenever under pressure, look to spin the ball.”
In the first innings, USA skipper Monank Patel set the tone with a quickfire 36 before Mukkamalla provided the fireworks, unleashing five boundaries and four sixes in his knock of 79 off 51 balls.
Shubham Ranjane capped the innings with an unbeaten 48 off 24 to guide the US to a competitive total while allrounder Bas de Leede (3-37) emerged as the pick of the bowlers, claiming the crucial wickets of both Patel and Mukkamalla.
In response, the Netherlands’ chase never got off the ground as they failed to build partnerships and lost wickets at regular intervals, crumbling to 5-66 in eight overs.
Harmeet proved the architect of their downfall, extracting turn from the surface as he ripped through the Netherlands’ batting lineup just as the chase threatened to flicker.
The bowler conceded little while constantly increasing pressure as the required run rate climbed.
Veteran Shadley van Schalkwyk, who’s having a great tournament, chipped in with 3-21, cleaning up the tail as the Dutch were bowled out in the 16th over.
“We never really got going, we just kept losing wickets,” Dutch skipper Scott Edwards said.
“When the required rate gets up to 11 or 12 pretty quick, it’s that balance of getting the rate down and not losing wickets. We didn’t get it right today.”
Aryansh, Sohaib guide UAE to win over Canada
UAE v Canada scorecard
United Arab Emirates have registered their first win of the T20 World Cup after half-centuries by Aryansh Sharma and Sohaib Khan secured a five-wicket victory over Canada in their group D match at New Delhi’s Arun Jaitley Stadium.
Chasing 151 for victory on Friday, UAE slumped to 4-66 in the 13th over before a brilliant 84-run stand between Aryansh and Sohaib set up their win with two balls to spare.
Aryansh made 74no, while Sohaib produced a 29-ball blitz of 51.
After electing to bat, Canada posted a competitive 7-150 with Harsh Thaker (50) and Navneet Dhaliwal (34) contributing useful runs.
UAE seamer Junaid Siddique claimed five of Canada’s seven wickets, conceding 35 runs in his four overs.
Left-arm spinner Saad Bin Zafar wrecked UAE’s top order, claiming the wickets of Alishan Sharafu, Mayank Kumar and Harshit Kaushik to put Canada on top but Aryansh proved immovable and brought up his fifty off 41 balls.
Sohaib, who hit four sixes, put UAE’s chase back on track with a 28-ball half-century before falling in the final over.
UAE leapfrogged Afghanistan into third place in the group – behind New Zealand and South Africa, who are level on four points from two matches.
