Mark Chapman, a bowler for New Zealand, said they didn’t underestimate the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after their shocking loss to the small team in the second T20 International on Saturday in Dubai.
After coming close to losing the first game on Friday, the visitors scored 142-8, which was below par. It took the UAE 26 balls to get to that score, giving them their first win against New Zealand in any form of the game.
At the end of the 12th over, New Zealand was in trouble with a score of 65-5. Chapman, who got the most runs for his team with 63, made their score look better, but it wasn’t enough in the end.
The UAE leader, Muhammad Waseem, made 55 runs, and the number four player, Asif Khan, made a quick 48 runs. Together, they led their team to a seven-wicket victory that tied the series at 1-1.
Chapman told media after the loss, “I think we’ve seen that associate cricket is getting stronger and stronger.” He denied letting their guard down against a team that was 13 places lower in the official ranks.
“That was made clear at the T20 World Cup in Australia, where some associate nations beat some test countries.
“It’s not surprising at all to see how well they’ve played and how confident they are, since they’ve won some really good local events.
“Good people are coming out of it.”
Tim Southee, the leader of New Zealand, also said great things about their opponents.
“The UAE team deserves a lot of credit. “In all three ways, they were better than us,” Southee said.
“We probably didn’t learn enough from what happened the day before. We made some mistakes that were similar to what happened the day before, and we were punished for that.
“All we have to do is get better at all three things.”
Later on Sunday, the third and final T20 is set to happen.