CHENNAI: Tim Seifert seems to be a man on a mission. The New Zealand opener scored his second consecutive half-century (unbeaten 89) while fellow opener Finn Allen cracked unbeaten 84 as the Kiwis crushed UAE by 10 wickets in the ongoing ICC World Cup at the MA Chidambaram stadium at Chennai on Tuesday.
The Kiwi pair chased down 173 without any hiccups. Seifert, who had hit 65 in the opener against Afghanistan at the same venue, showed that he is improving with every outing. Both Seifert and Allen paced their innings well and were spot on in their shot selection. New Zealand chased down the target with 28 balls to spare, recording their second successive win in the process.
UAE brought in left-arm spinner Hyder Ali to open the bowling and employed Rohid Khan, a left-arm fast bowler at the other end.
This was done with an objective to curb the Kiwis strokeplay and force them to commit mistakes. However, that didn't pay off as Seifert and Allen were sensible in their approach and navigated the early phase expertly.
UAE bowlers lacked pace and were erratic in the lines and length that they bowled. The Muhammad Waseem-led side's spinners lacked the flight, imagination or drift to trouble both Seifert and Allen's footwork and were thus, were carted all over the park.
Mitchell Santner, New Zealand skipper, was a pleased man. He also lauded UAE for their batting effort.
"Yeah, it was alright (win). Credit to UAE, they batted pretty well on that wicket. Summed up the conditions pretty quickly and made a pretty good score. But, you know, that was a pretty flat wicket in the end," said Santner.
"I thought once we kind of understood the conditions, it looked like a lot better wicket than the other day. Red soil tends to play a lot better. They (UAE) played some good shots, I'm not going to lie. They used the pace nicely, so I think once we went more into the wicket and slower, they really kind of held it more. And, the death phase from seamers was outstanding. With the bigger side, yeah, we kind of thought that was the option. So I think Rachin bowled extremely well. I was just trying to play the sides, try and get the big sides with this one over here being quite short. And then it was the same with the batting, try to target that side a little bit," Santner said while talking about the bowlers' efforts.
Santner was also delighted with the opener combination and hoped that they'll continue to keep up the run flow in the days to come.
"The way those two (Tim, Finn) bat together and the way they strike it. But again, I think they took great options. They looked straight and then obviously with the short side, if it was there, they took it on. But again, it's running through the big side. And yeah, I guess when they go together, it's nice for us. Ahmedabad looks like a pretty good wicket. We know how good South Africa are and it's still a massive game for us."
Lalchand Rajput, the chief coach of UAE, during a chat with Express before his team's match against New Zealand, had said that his main job was to make his players understand the nuances of T20. He had insisted that T20 required a different set of skills and he was preparing his boys keeping the opposition in mind.
On the day, UAE's batting clicked as Waseem led from the front with an unbeaten 66. He was ably supported by Alishan Sharafu, who made a brisk 55 and the duo's effort had helped UAE post 173 for 6 in the first innings.
It was their bowlers who toiled on the day. Waseem and Sharafu stitched together a crucial stand worth 117 runs in 77 balls for the second wicket. The duo played with ease and showed good understanding of the shortest version of the game.
When the pair was going strong, it never felt like an Associate nation was playing against a top-tier team. Both Waseem and Sharafu were aggressive from the word go. They were spot on in their shot selection and used the pace of the ball to score runs.
The Kiwi pacers, be it Matt Henry, Jacob Duffy or Lockie Ferguson, kept banging the ball hard and on a surface that had good bounce and carry, but the UAE top order kept milking runs.
Sharafu once stepped out and hit a straight drive for a four over Henry to show his class and control. Later, Sharafu, while playing a length delivery from Ferguson, backed away, crouched low, opened the face of his bat to pull off a six over the third man region, which left the Kiwis stunned.
Despite the day's outcome, Waseem was pleased with the overall effort. "To be honest, it's a very good effort from the batting team, myself and Alishan Sharafu. I think we could have still made 15-20 more runs. In between, 2-3 overs, we didn't bat well, we lost 2-3 wickets in the middle. So overall, it's a good effort from the batting team," he said.
"We were thinking simple things because we played against them in the franchise and before also. So we were thinking, we have to wait for the bad balls. We were going with that mindset," added Waseem, on his century stand with Sharafu.
Waseem felt that his team was 15-20 runs short and accepted that his team's bowling needs to improve. "Yeah, we were short 15-20 runs. We need to step up as a bowling team. We need to be judicious in the way we bowl. The surface was very good. I think we did not execute our plan that well, but I think we need to do that in the upcoming games."
.