Bowlers spearheaded by Bas de Leede helped the Netherlands defeat the United Arab Emirates by three wickets in a tense, low-scoring T20 World Cup encounter on Sunday in Geelong.
In the second match of the day in Geelong, the Netherlands chased down their goal of 112 with one ball remaining, with captain Scott Edwards undefeated on 16.
The UAE’s speed spearhead Junaid Siddique recorded stats of 3/24 and put the opposition in difficulty with two wickets in the fourteenth over, but Edwards kept his cool to lead his team to a round one victory.
With his three wickets, the pace bowling all-rounder De Leede led the attack to restrict the UAE to 111/8.
The UAE batsmen withstood a disciplined Dutch attack despite scoring slowly, reaching 85/2 in 15 overs with Muhammad Waseem getting 41 before falling to Fred Klaassen, the Dutch attack’s speed spearhead.
The wicket sparked a collapse as De Leede struck three times in the nineteenth over, reducing the UAE from 91/2 to 26 runs in the final five overs.
In the team’s reply, Vikramjit Singh was dismissed for 10 and Max O’Dowd scored 23 runs off 18 balls to get the squad off to a fast start.
The Netherlands lost control of their modest chase after O’Dowd was bowled by Junaid in the sixth over, and a flurry of wickets followed.
Junaid struck twice within three balls, including Tom Cooper (8) and Roelof van der Merwe (0), and almost had a third when captain Chundangapooril Rizwan dropped a catch at cover.
The error proved costly as Edwards and Tim Pringle added 27 runs in the penultimate over to sneak home.
AFP
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