Two Balls, Two Wickets, and a Tournament Kept Alive — UAE Bowl Indonesia Out for 73 in Dubai

An off-spinner opening the bowling in a T20 international is a captain's declaration of intent. Esha Oza made it, and it took two deliveries to be proved right.

Suraksha Kotte's first ball found Maria Corazon's edge through to Theertha Satish. Her second had Ni Luh Dewi caught by Heena Hotchandani. Indonesia were nought for two without a run on the board, and a match that was always likely to be one-sided had its result decided before most of the Dubai crowd had settled.

What followed was more instructive than the scoreline. UAE did not simply run through a weaker side — they bowled with a discipline they have not always shown, used six bowlers, and gave away four wides in twenty overs. Five of them took wickets. Indonesia were bowled out for 73 with two balls of the innings unused.

The number that stands out is not Kotte's 3 for 16. It is Heena Hotchandani's 4-0-6-2.

Slow left-arm, four overs at the middle of an innings that needed to accelerate, six runs conceded and two wickets taken — Ni Kadek Fitria Rada Rani bowled, Sofia Velic lbw. An economy of 1.50 in a T20 international is the kind of figure that only appears when a bowler and a batting line-up are operating in different registers entirely, and that was the case here.

Around her, UAE were relentless rather than spectacular. Oza's own four overs cost eleven and brought the wicket of Rahmawati Pangestuti in the fourth and, later, the big one — Sakarini lbw at 57 for 5 in the sixteenth, which ended any theoretical chance of a total. Samaira Dharnidharka's seam accounted for Desi Wulandari. Vaishnave Mahesh's legspin struck twice in the twentieth over to finish the innings two balls early.

UAE conceded two leg byes and four wides across the innings. Six extras. For a side whose bowling has been the weaker half of their cricket this tournament — they conceded 153 in twenty-seven and a half overs against Sri Lanka — this was a genuine step forward.

Ni Putu Ayu Nanda Sakarini batted at four, came in at one for two, and was still there in the sixteenth over. She made 39 from 52 balls with four fours and a six — 53.4 per cent of Indonesia's runs — and she was the only batter on either side to look settled for any length of time.

She has now had to do this three times. Indonesia's tournament reads: 58 all out against Bangladesh, 49 all out against Sri Lanka, 73 all out here. Three matches, three defeats, 180 runs across sixty overs for the loss of thirty wickets. Their captain and wicketkeeper has been the top scorer or close to it in each.

It would be easy, and wrong, to be dismissive about this. Indonesia are three years into serious international exposure and this is their first Asia Cup. Against Sri Lanka on Wednesday they had the defending champions 62 for 6 — they created that position themselves, with a plan and the bowling to execute it. Their bowling is developing faster than their batting, which is the usual order of things and not a bad sign. Sofia Velic took 2 for 25 here and Ni Ariani's four overs cost ten.

The batting is where the distance is. Eleven of Indonesia's twenty-two dismissals in this tournament have been bowled or lbw, and against Kotte's off-spin and Hotchandani's left-arm they simply had no method for a ball that pitched straight and did a little.

Chasing 74, UAE lost Theertha Satish in the fifth over and then Esha Oza made the game disappear. Five fours in a 29-ball 30, two of them in the sixth over and two more in the eighth, and by the tenth over the required rate had collapsed to under one an over.

Rinitha Rajith took three fours off Velic in the ninth to make sure. There was a small wobble — 62 for 1 became 68 for 4 as Ni Ariani bowled Oza and Velic took two in the twelfth, including Hotchandani for a two-ball duck — but with six runs required it was decoration rather than drama. UAE finished it at the start of the fourteenth.

Oza's match — 30 with the bat, 2 for 11 with the ball, and the captaincy call to open with off-spin that decided the whole thing inside two deliveries — was a properly complete performance, and the Player of the Match award was not close.

This match didn't have a CricIntel preview, so there is no call of ours on the table. One honest note from our Sri Lanka–Indonesia review on September 2, though: we wrote then that UAE against Indonesia on Friday was 'a fixture both sides will regard as their most winnable of the tournament', and that Indonesia had been in front of Sri Lanka at the halfway mark in a way UAE had not managed. That second part did not age well — UAE were the better side here by a distance, and their bowling was the reason.

Group B is set up neatly. Sri Lanka lead on four points with a net run rate of 4.129 and play Bangladesh on September 6 in what is effectively the group decider. UAE are third on two points with a net run rate of -0.854 and face Bangladesh on September 8.

The maths for the hosts is unforgiving but not impossible: beat Bangladesh, and hope. A UAE win over Bangladesh combined with a Bangladesh loss to Sri Lanka would leave three sides in the conversation with net run rate deciding, and UAE's is the worst of the three by some way. That nine-wicket beating by Sri Lanka on August 29 may yet be the match that costs them.

Indonesia are done. They go home with three defeats, a captain who carried the batting on her own, and a bowling attack that troubled the defending champions. On a first Asia Cup, that is not nothing.