New Zealand beat UAE by 19 runs in opening Twenty20

Dubai: Captain Tim Southee set up New Zealand’s 19-run win over UAE with a 5-25 score in a Twenty20 match on Thursday.

United Arab Emirates, with seven players making their T20 debuts, were chasing a 156-run win but collapsed after opener Aryansh Sharma scored 60 runs in the 15th over.

UAE lost their last four wickets for 10 runs and were all out with two balls to spare.

Opener Tim Seifert led the New Zealand batsmen with 55 off the first 60 runs, including three sixes.

New Zealand trailed 85-5 after the first batting session, but Jimmy Neesham (25 runs off 22 balls), Cole McConchie (31 runs off 24 balls) and Rachin Ravindra (21 runs off 11 balls) made the final score 155-6 in the closing stages.

UAE chase started badly when captain Muhammad Waseem was hit on the back leg by Southee’s first ball. Coincidentally, New Zealand also lost a wicket with the first ball when Chad Bowes edged Junaid Siddique for an out.

Sharma hit three consecutive boundaries off Ben Lister plus two more successively off Kyle Jamieson.

Sharma had taken the UAE well above the required run rate, but after the 12th over it began to decline.

Then Southee returned to dismiss Basil Hameed at 101-5 and Neesham caught Sharma, whose knock gave Bowes a good catch at short extra cover.

Sharma was bowled out for 60 off 43, the highest score by a UAE male cricketer on his T20 debut.

The final two T20 tournaments take place this weekend.