After Namibia’s big win over Sri Lanka in the opening match of the tournament, it was a different sort of game on a cold evening in Geelong as the Netherlands took on the UAE. The game may have gone down to the penultimate delivery, but it would be stretching things to call it a thriller.

The UAE chose to bat first and, Muhammad Waseem’s 41 apart, looked like the undercooked team in the process of change that they are. Their innings is perhaps best summed up by a clip doing the rounds on social media that shows Aayan Khan managing to trip over the boundary rope toblerone after he was dismissed from the penultimate ball of their innings.

Bas de Leede took 3-19 whilst Fred Klassen took 2-13 as the UAE were restricted to 111-8 from their 20 overs. The Dutch kept it tight towards the end of the innings, taking six wickets as the UAE were only able to score 26 from the last five overs.

In the Dutch reply, Max O’Dowd helped get them off to a quick start with an 18 ball knock of 23 and the team had scored 41 when he was the second man out in the sixth over. The UAE got back into things with some tight bowling though and when Junaid Siddique took two wickets in three balls in the 14th over, the Dutch were 76-7 and facing possible defeat.

It was nearly three wickets in five balls for Siddique but captain Chundangapoyil Rizwan failed to take a simple chance when Tim Pringle hit his second delivery straight to him. It proved to be costly as Pringle went on to score 15 from 16 balls before he was bowled nine deliveries from the end.

Captain Scott Edwards held up his end, scoring 16 from 19 balls, helping his team complete a three wicket win with one ball to spare.