Netherlands edge UAE in T20 World Cup thriller

GEELONG: Bowlers led by Bas de Leede helped the Netherlands edge out the United Arab Emirates by three wickets in a tense low-scoring match of the Twenty20 World Cup on Sunday.

Skipper Scott Edwards stood unbeaten on 16 as the Netherlands chased down their target of 112 with one ball to spare in the second match of the day in Geelong.

UAE pace spearhead Junaid Siddique returned figures of 3-24 and put the opposition in trouble with two wickets in the 14th over but Edwards held his nerve to get his team off to a win in round one.

De Leede, an all-rounder who is a pace bowler, led the charge with his three wickets to keep down the UAE to 111-8.

Electing to bat, the UAE batsmen survived the disciplined Dutch attack albeit scoring slowly as they reached 85-2 in 15 overs with Muhammad Waseem making 41 before falling to pace spearhead Fred Klaassen.

The wicket triggered a collapse as de Leede struck three times in the 19th over as the UAE slipped from 91-2 and managed just 26 runs in the final five overs.

In reply, Vikramjit Singh got out for 10 but Max O´Dowd hit 23 off 18 balls to get the team off to a quick start.

Score Board

UAE won the toss

United Arab Emirates Innings

Suri c †Edwards b van der Merwe 12

Waseem c Pringle b Klaassen 41

Daud b Pringle 15

Aravind † c Klaassen b Leede 18

Farid run out (Ackermann/†Edwards) 2

Hameed c van der Merwe b de Leede 4

Rizwan (c) b de Leede 1

Aayan c Cooper b Klaassen 5

Meiyappan not out 0

Siddique not out 0

Extras: (b 1, lb 6, w 6) 13

Total: 20 Ov (RR: 5.55) 111/8

Did not bat: Zahoor Khan

Fall of wickets: 1-33, 2-59, 3-91, 4-99, 5-103, 6-104, 7-106, 18.6 ov, 8-110, 19.5 ov

Bowling: Fred Klaassen 4-0-13-2, Tim Pringle 4-0-13-1, Logan van Beek 2-0-19-0, Bas de Leede 3-0-19-3, Paul van Meekeren 4-0-21-0, Roelof van der Merwe 3-0-19-1

Netherlands Innings

Vikramjit b Basil Hameed 10

O’Dowd b Siddique 23

De Leede c Rizwan b Meiyappan 14

Ackermann c Siddique b Aayan 17

Cooper lbw b Siddique 8

Edwards (c)† not out 16

Van der Merwe b Siddique 0

Pringle b Zahoor 15

Beek not out 4

Extras: (b 2, lb 2, w 1) 5

Total: 19.5 Ov (RR: 5.64) 112/7

Did not bat: Klaassen, van Meekeren

Fall of wickets: 1-14, 2-41, 3-59, 4-71, 5-76, 6-76, 13.3 ov, 7-103

Bowling: Junaid Siddique 4-0-24-3, Basil Hameed 1-0-7-1, Aayan Afzal Khan 3-0-15-1, Karthik Meiyappan 4-0-22-1, Zahoor Khan

4-0-11-1, Zawar Farid 2.5-0-24-0, Kashif Daud 1-0-5-0

Result: Netherlands won by 3 wickets

Player of the match: Bas de Leede

Umpires: Reiffel, Richard Kettleborough