After being dropped in United States of America’s previous clash against Pakistan at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo, the management brought back one of their most successful T20I batters in recent times, Saiteja Mukkamalla, who took the centre stage with a glorious knock against the Netherlands at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai during the T20 World Cup 2026. 

Saiteja Mukkamalla’s first big shot came against Fred Klassen on the very first delivery of the sixth over, as he didn’t move but hit the ball through the line with a smooth swing of the bat and lofted it over the straight long-off region. He later walked across to play an aerial shot over the no-striker end.

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After the dismissal of their captain, Monark Patel, Mukkamalla looked to be getting more aggressive with the bat as he kept getting at least two boundaries in every single over of the innings. The right-handed batter bent his back and made excellent contact to carve the ball against Kyle Klein to put him into the stands for a six, and celebrated his half-century in just 30 balls.

Saiteja Mukkamalla celebrates 30-ball fifty in T20 World Cup 2026 clash

The USA, number three now has seven 50+ scores in 20 innings for the USA in the shortest format, which is the joint-most with their captain, who has taken 19 more innings than Saiteja for the milestone. The right-hander went under the fuller delivery of Roelof van der Merwe and lofted it downtown like an arrow for a massive six.

Watch the video here: 

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He was finally dismissed for 79 runs in 51 balls with the help of five boundaries and four sixes at a strike rate of 154.90. Their middle-order batter, Subham Ranjane, also played a very crucial knock of 48 runs in 24 balls at a strike rate of 200 with three boundaries and a couple of sixes.  

The USA finished with 196/6 in their allotted 20 overs of the innings. Interestingly, Saiteja is one of the five batters of the T20Is to have an average of 40+ and a strike rate of 150+ in their careers for a minimum of 500 runs. India’s Rinku Singh is also part of the list.

Brief Scores: USA 196/6 (Saiteja Mukkamalla 79, Shubham Ranjane 48*, Bas de Leede 3/37) vs Netherlands 56/4 (Bas de Leede 23, Harmeet Singh 2/11)