WATCH: Tim Southee Sets Up New Zealand’s Win Over UAE In 1st T20 Match

New Zealand skipper Tim Southee picked up a five-wicket haul to ensure a 19-run win for his side over UAE in the first T20I match.

New Zealand skipper Tim Southee bowls in the 1st T20 vs UAE. (Source: Twitter)

Captain Tim Southee took 5/25 to spearhead New Zealand’s 19-run win over the United Arab Emirates in a T20 international match on Thursday. A UAE with seven players making their T20 debut was chasing a gettable 156 to win but collapsed after opener Aryansh Sharma was out for a game-high 60 in the 15th over.

The UAE lost their last four wickets for 10 runs and was all out with two balls remaining. Opener Tim Seifert led New Zealand’s batting with 55 of their first 60 runs, including three sixes.

Made to bat first, New Zealand was 85-5 but got handy late contributions from Jimmy Neesham with 25 off 22 balls, Cole McConchie, 31 not out off 24, and Rachin Ravindra, 21 not out off 11. They finished on 155-6.

The UAE chase started badly when captain Muhammad Waseem was out to the first ball, leg before on the back leg, by Southee. By coincidence, New Zealand lost a wicket to the first ball, too, when Chad Bowes edged Junaid Siddique behind.

WATCH Tim Southee pick up five wickets against UAE in 1st T20 HERE…

Tim Southee's 5-fer set up New Zealand's 19-run win over the United Arab Emirates.
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Sharma hit three consecutive boundaries off Ben Lister plus two more successively off Kyle Jamieson. Sharma had the UAE well above the necessary run rate but it began dropping after the 12th over.

Then Southee returned to take out Basil Hameed at 101-5 and Neesham bagged Sharma, whose swipe made Bowes produce a good catch at short extra cover. Sharma was out for 60 off 43, the highest score by a men's UAE cricketer on T20 debut.

“It was a good game of cricket. We came to expect that. They are a growing side and they showed it tonight. Number of guys have been playing cricket in different parts of the world. We had a couple of days of training and we had to adapt. When you travel, you get used to different conditions. They (UAE) are a quality side, they are improving. Youngsters playing with that sort of freedom - it is exciting,” Southee said after the 1st T20 on Thursday.

The last two T20s are this weekend. “It is an honour for us to be playing against New Zealand. We were very close (to winning) but lost due to a lack of experience. We are telling them to play deep into the innings. We lost early wickets and then wickets in the middle. We are very happy with the performance and we will take the positives from this game. From my side, he (Aryansh) will get 500 (samosas) for this performance (laughs),” UAE skipper Muhammad Waseem said.

(with PTI inputs)