An all-round performance saw the USA claim a big 93-run win over the Netherlands to open their account at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 in Chennai on Friday night. The result saw them clinch what was their first-ever T20I triumph over the Dutch.
Defending 197, the USA struck twice in quick succession to nab three wickets in the powerplay. Nosthush Kenjige opened up the floodgates for the USA, striking off his first ball. Harmeet Singh then quickly doubled the advantage by getting the better of Max O’Dowd. Colin Ackermann then fell prey to the leading wicket-taker at the tournament, Shadley van Schalkwyk.
Harmeet Singh continued to shine with the ball as the spinner got the big wicket of Bas de Leede at the other side of the powerplay. The left-arm tweaker’s third breakthrough came in the form of the Dutch captain Scott Edwards.
He then went on to wrap up an impressive four-wicket haul by trapping Roelof van der Merwe LBW, finishing with bowling figures of 4 for 21. Equally supporting him with the ball, Van Schalkwyk, who nabbed a three-for, and Mohammad Mohsin, who seized a brace.
“When I first saw the wicket, the ball was holding quite a bit,” he told Alan Wilkins. “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,” Harmeet Singh, who was named Player of the Match. said.
“They deserve this more, especially Saiteja and Shubham, the way they played. 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,” he added.
Earlier, the Netherlands captain Scott Edwards won the toss and elected to field first. USA responded with a hefty 53 for 1 in powerplay, their highest score in the first six overs in T20 World Cup matches.
The USA top order came to the party, with the top three batters all contributing to the cause. Openers Shayan Jahangir (20) and captain Monank Patel (36) set the tone for USA, while Saiteja Mukkamalla kept the pedal to the metal.
Playing his first match of this World Cup, Mukkamalla carted the ball all round the park. During a 51-ball 76, the New Jersey-born batter struck five fours and four sixes, including a superb six over cover to bring up his half-century.
Shubham Ranjane then engineered the late charge, with a whirlwind 48 in 24, to lift USA to 196/6.
Monank Patel: “Really happy with the way we played. 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 under pressure. We prepared really well in the warm-up games. Lots of learnings from the first two games. After Shayan got out, the message I sent was that it was a 170 pitch with the quality of spinners we had,” said USA captain Monank Patel.
“He’s (Saiteja) an incredible talent for USA… Very mature player, took the responsibility we’ve been talking about. It was very simple for 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,” he added.
It was a difficult day in the field for the Netherlands, but Bas De Leede pulled things back a little with 3f for 37, including the crucial wickets of Patel and Mukkamalla.
“More than we were hoping for. The USA put us under pressure. We dragged it back alright at the end. It was obviously quite a good pitch. We never really got going, we just kept losing wickets. When the 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. We obviously travel again tomorrow. We’ll have a debrief, a day off, then reset,” said Netherlands skipper Scott Edwards.
Brief scores: United States of America 196 for six in 20 overs (Monank Patel 36, Shayan Jahangir 20, Saiteja Mukkamalla 79, Shubham Ranjane 48; Bas de Leede 3/37) beat Netherlands 103 in 15.5 overs (Bas de Leede 23, Scott Edwards 20; Harmeet Singh 4/21, Shadley van Schalkwyk 3/21, Mohammad Mohsin 2/19).
