Brief scores: Netherlands 103 all out (Bas de Leede 23, Harmeet Singh 4-21) lost to USA 196-6 (Mukkamalla 79, De Leede 3-37) by 93 runs
The US inflicted a 93-run drubbing over the Netherlands under the lights in Chennai on Friday to keep their T20 World Cup campaign alive while the Dutch face elimination.
The contest turned out to be a mismatch. Having posted an imposing 196-6 on a good batting surface, US spinners, led by Harmeet Singh (4-21), shared seven wickets between them as an unconvincing Dutch batting line-up unravelled, to be bowled out for 103.
The manner of defeat will undoubtedly sting, exacerbated by the fact that the Dutch had never lost a T20I to the US coming into the game.
Scott Edwards won a crucial toss and inserted the US to bat first. It was sound logic with dew expected later at night and with a strong chasing record at the venue.
21-year-old Saiteja Mukkamalla flayed the Dutch bowling attack with a well-composed 79, a maiden T20I half-century that featured five boundaries and four sixes.
Given the docile nature of the pitch that took some turn, it barely left any room for error for the bowlers. Mukkamalla regularly punished the Dutch bowlers, who either offered too much width or bowled too full. He was particularly strong over the covers and hitting across the line.
Shubham Ranjane, too, regularly found the boundary and teed off in the death overs with a destructive 24-ball 48.
Bas de Leede continued his fine form, finishing with 3-37 with the ball, and was one of the few bowlers to have got the memo. He expertly switched between his variations.
A knuckleball bouncer accounted for the US captain, Monank Patel on 36, while a pace-on delivery banged in short had Mukkamalla caught in the deep before a slower-ball bouncer got rid of Milind Kumar.
US spinners
The US had plenty of lapses in the field but it hardly cost them with the ball as the Dutch chase never gathered any momentum, losing three wickets in the powerplay before losing 5 for 28 to be bowled out in the 16th over.
Only once have the Dutch chased down a 190-plus total at a T20 World Cup, a famous six-wicket win over Ireland in Sylhet in 2014 that put them in the next round.
There were mitigating factors at play. The Dutch barely get to train or play under the lights outside the T20 World Cup, with no grounds back home equipped with floodlights. Their games against Pakistan in Colombo and Namibia in Delhi, earlier in the tournament, were day games but curiously, their only training session in Chennai a day out from the game was in the afternoon.
“We haven’t had any practices under lights yet,” head coach Ryan Cook lamented after the game.
Rain
“We had a rained-off practice and a rained-off [warm-up] match, and yesterday we weren’t allowed to play under lights. So this is our first time that we’ve played under the lights since Bangladesh [tour in August 2025], for which some of our players weren’t there. So it is obviously quite new for most of the guys. But that’s not an excuse for us. We have got to go out there and do the business.
“We didn’t execute with the ball at all and that sort of made the scoreboard pressure come into play. But yeah, caps off to them, they batted really well [and] bowled some very good spin. Our decision making and execution wasn’t quite up to par tonight.”
Playing India next in four days’ time at the world’s biggest stadium in Ahmedabad will come with its own set of challenges. Barring a big win against the No. 1 ranked side in the world, also the defending champions eyeing a historic double, and favours from elsewhere, the Dutch will bow out of a yet another tournament they would have hoped to make a splash at.
