Saiteja Mukkamalla provided the impetus to USA's total with a 51-ball-79 against The Netherlands in Chennai on Friday.
Batting with intent and making every effort to grind it out on a difficult wicket is what turned things in their favour, United States skipper Monank Patel said after his side snapped a two-match losing streak with a commanding 93-run win over the Netherlands in a T20 World Cup clash in Chennai on Friday.
Key Points
- Skipper Monank Patel said adapting quickly to the slow, gripping surface and punishing bad balls proved decisive.
- Saiteja Mukkamalla (79 off 51) and Shubham Ranjane (48* off 24) lifted USA to 196/6 on a challenging wicket.
- Left-arm spinner Harmeet Singh claimed 4/21 to bowl Netherlands out for 103, exploiting turn and varying his pace.
- Monank revealed he believed 170 was a par score and backed the USA spin attack to defend it successfully.
With the ball holding up and arriving late onto the bat, it was a challenging outing, but USA batters Saiteja Mukkamalla (79 off 51 balls) and Shubham Ranjane (48 not out off 24) turned adversity into advantage, powering the side to a more-than-sufficient 196 for 6.
Left-arm spinner Harmeet Singh, who was named Player of the Match, then harried the Netherlands batters with a superb spell of 4 for 21, as they were bowled out for 103, handing the USA a comprehensive victory.
"Batting first wasn't easy, the wicket was holding but we showed the intent. Initially, we wanted to look at the pitch. As soon as we knew, we wanted to make sure we punished the bad balls, showed the intent and put them (opponents) under pressure," said skipper Monank after the match.
"We prepared really well in the warm-up games. Lots of learnings from the first two games (which USA lost narrowly)," he added.
Monank said that after opener Shayan Jahangir was dismissed for 20, he immediately signalled that a total in the region of 170 would be par, backing the USA spinners to have the quality to stifle the Netherlands batters within that target.
"After Shayan got out, the message I sent was that it was a 170 pitch with the quality of spinners we had.
He added that once spinner Harmeet Singh noticed the ball was holding up, his experience came into play, allowing him to exploit the conditions on the pitch effectively.
"It was very simple for him (Harmeet), as soon as he saw the ball was gripping a bit. He has the experience and skills to spin the ball, he varied the pace. Credit to him," added Monank.
The plan was to spin the ball: Harmeet Singh
Player of the Match Harmeet said the focus was entirely on extracting maximum turn from the pitch after noticing its slow nature, and the plan worked to perfection.
"When I first saw the wicket, the ball was holding quite a bit. The plan was looking to spin the ball. In the Powerplay, it did grip from ball one. It was more like a one-day plan. The chat we had in the mid-innings was there is assistance when you look to spin the ball," he said.
On the team's chances of advancing to the Super 8s, he said the team will keep fighting.
"Funny things happen. We keep trusting, we keep fighting. The first two games were close ones... We've shown the world what we can do," Netherlands skipper Scott Edwards, whose team suffered their second defeat in three games, said his side would regroup and focus on their upcoming match against India on February 18 in Ahmedabad.
"We obviously travel again tomorrow. We'll have a debrief, a day off, then reset," he said.
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