Sports
Southee’s five-fer helps NZ go 1-0 up
New Zealand’s skipper Tim Southee picked up his second five wicket haul in T20Is to guide his team to victory against a fighting UAE.
The hosts fell 19 runs short of New Zealand’s 155 but not before providing a scare with Aryansh Sharma’s 60 setting the chase up beautifully before Southee turned things around. Opener Sharma kept UAE ahead of the asking rate even as New Zealand managed to chip away at regular intervals at the other end.
Sharma struck nine fours and a six before he fell with five overs left in the chase, and UAE still needing 40 more for victory. The lower order was not allowed to wag, and wrapped up in quick time with Southee picking up two wickets in the penultimate over. It marked a complete performance with the ball for the skipper who had also kick-started the innings on the right note with two wickets in his first two overs. The innings was completed with Kyle Jamieson, who marked his return from injury, with a lone wicket on comeback.
Those early blows proved to be vital as New Zealand had been restricted to a par total only despite Tim Seifert’s half-century. The opener’s knock was the only noteworthy contribution from an otherwise lukewarm top-order. UAE were within a sniff of restricting New Zealand to a total far lesser than their 155.
However, an unbeaten 46-run stand between Cole McConchie and Rachin Ravindra at the backend of the innings proved to be pivotal eventually, with New Zealand scampering home in the first of the three-match series.
Brief Scores:
New Zealand 155/6 in 20 overs (Tim Seifert 55; Junaid Siddique 2-35, Basil Hameed 2-30) beat UAE 136 in 19.4 overs (Aryansh Sharma 60; Tim Southee 5-25) by 19 runs