Following his side’s seven-wicket loss to UAE in the second T20I, New Zealand skipper Tim Southee said that dropped catches cost his side the game and lauded the opponent’s skipper Muhammad Waseem for his match-winning half-century. 

Skipper Muhammad Waseem led from the front as UAE scripted a stunning win over New Zealand in the second T20I in Dubai on Saturday to level the three-match series. 

“That is the beauty of sport, a lot of credit has to go to the UAE team, they outplayed us in all three facets. We were made to pay for our mistakes (today). Dropped catches are part of the game. When Waseem is playing in that mood, he has, for years, shown he is a quality player. We have to be better in all three areas. We will turn up tomorrow, in the series decider, and have another go,” said Southee in the post-match presentation. 

Coming to the match, UAE put NZ to bat first. Kiwis lost early wickets and sunk to 65/5 in 11.3 overs. Opener Chad Bowes (21), the hero of the previous match Tim Seifert (7), and Mitchell Santner (1) failed to score big. Aayan caused a lot of damage to NZ’s top order, taking three of these five wickets.

This emphatic six sums up the story!

UAE pull off a historic heist, beat NZ by 7 wickets #UAEvNZ #LiveOnFanCode pic.twitter.com/jGU6uafMx2
— FanCode (@FanCode) August 19, 2023

Then came a 53-run stand between Mark Chapman and James Neesham. The duo helped NZ cross the 100-run mark. Chapman smashed 63 in 46 balls consisting of three fours and three sixes while Neesham scored a supportive 21 in 17 balls, with two fours.

Kiwis ended the innings at 142/8 in 20 overs. Aayan (3/20) and Muhammad Jawadullah (2/16) were among the pick of the bowlers for UAE.

Chasing 153, UAE lost Aryansh Sharma for a duck in the first over itself. But that did not affect the intent of skipper Waseem at all, who stitched a 40-run stand with Vriitya Aravind (25 in 21 balls, with three fours and two sixes) to help UAE make a comeback in the match.

Waseem played with caution initially but let his arms loose to reach his fifty in 27 balls. He formed a 56-run stand with Asif and had scored 55 in 29 balls with four boundaries and three sixes when he was dismissed. UAE was 96/3 in 11 overs.

From then on, Asif built a match-winning stand with Basil Hameed (12*), smashing 48* in 29 balls with five fours and a six to get UAE a historic seven-wicket win with 26 balls to go. Santner, skipper Tim Southee and Kyle Jamieson got a wicket each.