Netherlands want to continue dominance in UAE competition

The UAE will lock in the horns in the second match of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in Geelong on Sunday, looking to better their record against the Netherlands in the ICC event.

The Group A pair will travel to Geelong’s Cardinia Park after the tournament opener at the same venue between Sri Lanka and Namibia.

Overview

The UAE will look to put on an unforgettable performance as they make their second appearance in the history of the T20 World Cup. 2014 was their last qualification for a major event and they will be looking to make up for their absence from the last two editions with some high-profile performances in Australia.

Expect sparks to fly when CP Rizwan and his men face Scott Edwards’ Netherlands in the first game of the tournament. The two sides have met 8 times in the T20 International before, and each team has won the same number of games. However, in ICC competitions, the Dutchman has a better record. Three of their four victories against the UAE have come from qualifying or the World Cup.

But the UAE can take heart from their impressive performance against West Indies in the warm-up game. Even though they lost the game, Junaid Siddique and Muhammad Waseem still performed well. Siddiq hit five and Wasim had an undefeated 69 to keep his team chasing. They ended up losing by 17 points, but it was a solid performance against a team considered better in terms of experience and quality.

The Netherlands also lost their warm-up match, but they faced Scotland, a team that matched their quality and experience. Their bowlers did well to limit Scotland to 151/7, with Brandon Glover and Bass de Reid taking three wickets each. But the batting unit failed miserably as hardly anyone other than Max O’Dowd bothered the Scottish bowling attack.

The Dutchman also had a disappointing performance in the previous edition. They dropped out at the group stage as they lost all three games. Edwards will expect him to be better this time around, but the batting needs to be stepped up.

key figure; main force; important member

zahur khan: He is a key player in possession of the ball in the UAE. Khan has played T20I 34 times so far and has taken 41 wickets while maintaining an excellent economy rate of 6.88. The right-arm pacer has pitched for his team at all stages and is the bowler of choice when they need a break. In the warm-up game against the West Indies, he played a 4-024-2 that included crucial wickets from Shamarh Brooks and Nicholas Pooran.

Pastelide: The 22-year-old all-rounder took some time to reach his full potential, but now that he’s here, it’s hard to stop him. De Leede has amassed 289 runs with a stunning average of 72.25 in the T20 International this year, while also taking 10 wickets per run at 10.70. Despite his poor bat performance in the warm-up against West Indies, Delid still managed a fine spell of 4-0-20-3.

Predicted Play XI

Netherlands: Stephan Myburgh, Max ODowd, Vikramjit Singh, Bas de Leede, Tom Cooper, Scott Edwards (c & wk), Roelof van der Merwe, Timm van der Gugten, Shariz Ahmad, Fred Klaassen, Brandon Glover

UAE: Muhammad Waseem, Chirag Suri, Aryan Lakra, Vriitya Aravind (wk), Chundangapoyil Rizwan (c), Basil Hameed, Aayan Afzal Khan, Zawar Farid, Karthik Meiyappan, Junaid Siddique, Zahoor Khan

Dream11 Dream Collection

Captain’s Choice: Pastelide

Bas de Leede came into the game with a great performance. He slashed three wickets in the recent warm-up against Scotland. He has scored two and a half centuries in the last five games, taking a total of nine wickets.

Must have: Vriitya Aravind

The 20-year-old has become a rising star for the UAE and is one of their most reliable batsmen. He’s already played 13 T20I games this year, scoring 407 times with an impressive batting average of over 140. He has three and a half centuries left until 2022.

Differential selection: Chirag Suri

Chirag Suri’s 118.23 batting average is a bit too conservative in this format, which usually puts pressure on the rest of the batting force. However, he has plenty of experience, amassing 791 runs in 29 games, averaging over 30.