Cricket-USA beat Netherlands by 93 runs to get on board at T20 World Cup

Feb 13 (Reuters) - The United States thrashed Netherlands by 93 runs in their Group A encounter on Friday to claim their first victory at the 2026 Twenty20 World Cup, thanks to Saiteja Mukkamalla's knock of 79 and Harmeet Singh's devastating four-wicket haul.

With the victory, the U.S. moved up to third in the group behind India and Pakistan having played a game more, while the Netherlands are fourth, also with two points but behind the Americans on net run rate.

Put into bat after losing the toss, the U.S. smashed an imposing 196-6 in 20 overs before dismissing the Netherlands for 103 as Harmeet (4-21) produced the best figures for an American in the World Cup to pick up the player of the match award.

"When I first saw the wicket in the first innings, the ball was holding quite a bit, even when I went into bat. So the plan was to spin the ball and in the powerplay when I bowled, it did grip from ball one," Harmeet said.

"That's the chat we had in the middle innings, that there is assistance if we look to spin. So I think the plan was whenever under pressure, look to spin the ball."

In the first innings, American skipper Monank Patel set the tone with a quickfire 36 before Mukkamalla provided the fireworks, unleashing five boundaries and four sixes in his knock of 79 off 51 balls.

Shubham Ranjane capped the innings with an unbeaten 48 off 24 to guide the U.S. to a competitive total while all-rounder Bas de Leede (3-37) emerged as the pick of the bowlers, claiming the crucial wickets of both Patel and Mukkamalla.

NETHERLANDS FAIL TO BUILD PARTNERSHIPS

In response, the Netherlands' chase never got off the ground as they failed to build partnerships and lost wickets at regular intervals, crumbling to 66-5 in eight overs.

Harmeet proved the architect of their downfall, extracting turn from the surface as he ripped through the Netherlands' batting lineup just as the chase threatened to flicker.

The bowler conceded little while constantly increasing pressure as the required run rate climbed.

Veteran Shadley van Schalkwyk chipped in with three wickets for 21 runs, cleaning up the tail as the Dutch side was dismissed in the 16th over.

"We never really got going, we just kept losing wickets," Dutch skipper Scott Edwards said.

"When the (required) rate gets up to 11 or 12 pretty quick, it's that balance of getting the rate down and not losing wickets. We didn't get it right today."