UAE crush Blackcaps en route to a historic win - 2nd T20i Review

It was a day of memorable firsts for UAE as they put on a show to ease past the Blackcaps in the second T20i by seven wickets and level the series 1-1. For the Blackcaps this was their first loss against a non-playing test match nation in 39 games.

The win was set up by 17-year-old left-arm tweaker Aayan Afzal Khan and left-arm fast bowler Muhammad Jawadullah, who setup career-best figures of 3-20 and 2-16 to help UAE restrict the Blackcaps to 142/8.

Only 3 players scored over 20 for the Blackcaps in this match. 2 of which scored 21 (Bowes and Neesham) also Chapman scored 63 off 46 in the middle order. Other than those scores no one made over 8 runs for New Zealand. This is a cause for concern and something that needs to be addressed.

The Blackcaps lineup and batting order need to be sorted. Santner batting at 3 in a T20? There becomes a point where it becomes ridiculous and this is the point. He has never batted a 3 for Northern Districts and is an alright mid-lower order batsman, not a top order. Foxcroft could come in as a direct replacement in this position. Adi Ashok needs an opportunity. He has proven he can do it on the domestic why not the world with a weaker opponent in the UAE to test him? With the Blackcaps batting deep so far he could replace Cole McConchie who has been poor so far.

The UAE inning started off miserable with Aryansh Sharma getting a duck off 3 balls however after things only looked up. Muhammed Waseem with a 50 off 29 balls set up the UAE. With a 25 from Vriitya Aravind and a 48 from Asif Kahn, it was set in stone. The UAE had beat the Blackcaps.

The Blackcaps bowlers were awful in this match. No bowler had a below-8 economy rate and they didn't get enough wickets. With every bowler looking awful unlike the UAE, this raises concerns around the camp. Soutthee didn’t get going, Jamieson didn’t, etc. It wasn’t their day. Everything will need to be addressed coming into the next match and next series vs England.