UAE stun New Zealand with a crushing win in 2nd T20I and square the series 1-1

 

 In this era of instant cricket, any team has the ability to defeat anyone.  Especially in the T20 game, once a team lags behind in the game, then it becomes difficult to make a comeback.  Something similar was seen in the second T20 match played between UAE and New Zealand.  The match between the two teams was played at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, in which UAE created a sensation by defeating New Zealand by 7 wickets.  This can be considered a big achievement for UAE in T20 cricket as New Zealand is ranked third in the ICC T20 rankings, while UAE is ranked 16th.  This victory of the UAE will be remembered for many years.

 With the victory in this match, the UAE team equalized  the series 1-1 .  The third and final T20 match of the series will be played in Dubai on Sunday.  In the first match of the series, the New Zealand team won by 19 runs.  In that match too, the UAE team gave a tough fight to New Zealand, although they fell behind in the last overs.

 In this 2nd match against UAE, New Zealand was invited to bat after losing the toss.  New Zealand's start in batting was nothing special and half the team returned to the pavilion on a score of just 65 runs.  However, Mark Chapman, in the middle order, saved New Zealand's shame,  playing an innings of 65 runs to somehow help the team reach 142 runs.  Apart from Chapman, James Neesham and Chad Bowes contributed 21 each runs for New Zealand.  Apart from these three batsmen, no one else could cross the double figure. Aayan Khan with 3/20 was the most successful bowler for UAE . 

Chasing the target of 143 runs, the first wicket of the UAE team had fallen to zero.  However, recovering from this initial setback, captain Mohammad Wasim and Vritia Arvind set their feet at the crease.  Wasim played an explosive  innings of 55 runs in just 29 balls which included 4 fours and 3 blistering sixes.  Whereas Arvind played a useful innings of 25 runs.  Apart from this, Asif Khan remained unbeaten after scoring an electrifying 48 runs.  Basil Hameed also returned to the pavilion unbeaten after scoring 12 runs off 12 balls.  In this way UAE achieved the target in just 15.4 overs and the Kiwi bowling which did so well in the first match, had no impact on the UAE batters this time. 

 In this match, the New Zealand team could not compete with UAE  whatsoever .  UAE created history by winning for the first time against New Zealand, while first showing a strong game in bowling and then batting.

Earlier in the first match,  New Zealand beat UAE by not too big a margin . Batting first New Zealand scored  155/8  with Seifert top scoring with 55 and  there were some good lower order contributions .  In reply , UAE was helped by 60  of 43 balls by Aryansh Sharma but wickets fell regularly at the other end as none of the other batters could thrive on their starts as they suffered from inexperience   and Tim Southee with 5/25 destroyed the middle order to restrict UAE to 136 and thus New Zealand  won by 19 runs .