India too strong for the Netherlands
Published at 27 October, 2022The Sydney Cricket Ground well filled with tens of thousands of spectators, tens of millions of TV viewers, and India as the opponent at a T20 World Cup; it couldn't get any better than that. However, the class difference turned out to be considerable: 179-123.
"A dream," Max O'Dowd said on social media, "Unreal" said captain Edwards. In Thursday night's reality, Rohit Sharma won the toss and opted to bat first. Fred Klaassen started with a fantastic inswinging yorker that K.L. Rahul managed to dig out. The bowling of the Netherlands was good and it was almost predictable that tournament star Paul van Meekeren would provide the first breakthrough: Rahul lbw - although according to the review the ball would have missed the legstump. Another big chance occurred in the fifth over. Pringle could have caught Sharma at mid wicket which would have meant 26/2. Now it was 32/1 after the Powerplay.
Van Beek seemed to have Sharma lbw, but this time India did opt for a review, which reversed the decision. 'Disciplined' was the word that was used repeatedly about the Dutch attack. The result was that India had only made 53 runs after nine overs – a admirable performance by the Dutch. However, it was obvious that India - with nine wickets in hand - would accelerate.
Sharma (53) was eventually caught in the outfield by Ackermann. Klaassen got the wicket he deserved: 84/2. Van Meekeren was on song again, but even two 147 km/h inswinging yorkers were insufficient to dismiss the two Indian top batsmen Virat Kohli (62 not out) and Suryakumar Yadav (51 not out). Kohli is one of a kind; even the most fanatic Dutch fan could only admire his six over extra cover. Despite several good stops on the boundary by Ackermann, Shariz Ahmad, Klaassen and De Leede, India made 179 runs. Klaassen took 1-33, Van Meekeren 1-32.
Netherlands innings
From the first ball, Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2-9) made life hard for the Dutch openers, starting with two maidens. In the third over he bowled Vikram Singh, and Max O'Dowd (16) was also bowled when he made room to sweep Axar Patel (2-18): 20/2.
De Leede (16) and Ackermann made a partnership of 27 for the third wicket, but increasing the runrate was far from easy on the world-class attack. Keeper Karthik missed two stumping chances on Ackermann (17), but the latter hardly benefited, holing out to cow corner shortly after.
Tim Pringle (20) hit Ravichandran Ashwin over the head for six, but could not follow up a nice start. It was telling that Shariz Ahmad (a frivolous 16 not out) and Paul van Meekeren (14 not out off six balls) made 22 runs in the two final overs. 123/9 was the end result. Six batsmen made double digit scores - with only 20 as the top score.
photo credit ICC/Getty images
