At the Men's T20 World Cup match on Sunday at Kardinia Oval in Geelong, in a low-scoring thriller Netherlands defeated UAE by three wickets thanks in large part to captain Scott Edwards, who kept his composure and scored the winning run.
After UAE was held to a meagre 111/8 in 20 overs thanks to outstanding spells from fast bowlers Bas de Leede, Fred Klaasen, and left-arm spinner Tim Pringle, Netherlands was kept in check after losing wickets at regular intervals and failing to hit a boundary after the eighth over.
But Edwards persevered till the very end, surviving a run-out in the penultimate over when six runs were needed off of the final two balls to bring the Netherlands home with one ball remaining and give them a 2-0 lead in Group A's points table.
In the first over of the Netherlands' chase, Vikramjit Singh produced two beautiful cuts across point on consecutive balls off of Junaid Siddique. He attempted a broad slog-sweep in the following over but was castled by Basil Hameed.
Before being totally caught by a ball that maintained low and crashed into the middle stump to give Siddique his first wicket of the game, Max O'Dowd blasted a six and three fours in his 18-ball 23.
Although Bas de Leede and Colin Ackermann lingered, UAE didn't allow them to stay at the crease for very long because they were consistently picking off wickets. De Leede attempted to drive off of Karthik Meiyappan, and captain CP Rizwan made a superb low grab at cover.
Ackermann's slog-sweep was pouched by square leg off Ayaan Afzal Khan three overs later. In the 14th over, Siddique allowed just one run to be scored while trapping Tom Cooper lbw and getting a full yorker to hit the base of Roelof van der Merwe's off-stump.
If Rizwan hadn't missed a straightforward catch of Tim Pringle, he might have taken three wickets in one over. Eventually, the 27-run stand was broken when Pringle was out thanks to an inswinging yorker from Zahoor Khan in the 19th over. Although the UAE mounted a valiant late comeback, Edwards, whose father was watching from the stands, made sure that the Netherlands emerged victorious.
Brief Scores: UAE 111/8 in 20 overs (Muhammad Waseem 41; Bas de Leede 3/19, Fred Klaasen 2/13) lost to the Netherlands 112/7 in 19.5 overs (Max O'Dowd 23, Colin Ackermann 17; Junaid Siddique 3/24, Basil Hameed 1/7) by three wickets