CHENNAI: Saiteja Mukkamalla's hard hitting 79 and penetrative bowling by Harmeet Singh (4/21) came in handy for USA to defeat Netherlands by 93 runs and register their first win of the tournament at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Friday.
After two losses, everything fell in place for USA as they first put up a challenging total (196/6) before spinners Harmeet and Mohammed Mohsin took charge. "When I first saw the wicket in the first innings, the ball was holding a bit - even when I went in to bat. So the plan was to really spin the ball. During the powerplay, when I bowled, it gripped a couple of times straight away, so I decided to trust that and not change too much," said Harmeet after his side's victory.
"It was almost like a one-day plan, staying patient and backing my strengths. Yes, absolutely. That was the conversation we had during the innings, that there was assistance if we were willing to give the ball some spin. So whenever we were under pressure, the idea was to go back to spinning the ball rather than forcing anything. Definitely. Full credit to the batters (Saiteja and Shubham). They gave us a great total to work with, which allowed me to go out there, bowl with freedom, and really spin the ball," he added.
Chasing 197 for a win, Netherlands had a disastrous start losing Michael Levitt cheaply. From there on, Bas de Leede and Max O'Dowd did a mini rescue act, adding 32 runs for the second wicket before the latter fell. Earlier, Mukkamalla's hard hitting innings set the tone before Shubham Ranjane's cameo (48 n.o from 24 balls) gave the much-needed impetus at the end to take USA closer to the 200-run mark. Skipper Monank Patel (36) also played a handy knock.
Put in to bat, USA openers straight away got into act. USA skipper Monak and Shyan Jahangir was scoring runs at will, exploiting the field restrictions in the power play. Jahangir was the aggressive of the duo. He was at ease playing the spin-pace combination of Aryan Dutt and Logan van Beek. The duo was scoring almost 10 runs per over when Jahangir fell to change of pace and was castled by Kyle Klein, missing a straight ball. With time, Monak grew in confidence as he got a feel of the 'mixed soil' surface and started to accelerate.
Brief scores: USA 196/6 in 20 ovs (Mukkamalla 79, Ranjane 48 n.o; De Leede 3/37) bt Netherlands 103 all out in 15.5 ovs (Harmeet 4/21, Mohsin 2/19, Schalkwyk 3/21).