Second ODI: the Netherlands make England work for the win

Heavy overnight rain had caused parts of the pitch to be wet. The start of the match was therefore postponed a number of times. In the end, the match was reduced to 41 overs.

Captain Scott Edwards, who took over from the injured Pieter Seelaar, chose to bat first after winning the toss. Viv Kingma, Teja Nidamanuru and the debuting Tim Pringle replaced Seelaar, Boissevain and Musa Ahmad.

Vikram Singh and Max O'Dowd opened the batting. The Netherlands’ start was slow. The English opening bowlers Willey and Topley were spot on, often a bit back of a length.

The first wicket fell on 17, when Vikram Singh mistimed a pull shot off Willey's bowling shortly after his first boundary. Moments later, legspinner Adil Rashid had success when O'Dowd swept. A little uppish was enough for Dawid Malan, who grabbed a fine catch at square leg (34/2).

Like Rashid, Brydon Carse struck in his first over. Tom Cooper (17) made no effort to have the lbw decision reviewed by the third umpire.

At a score of 36/3 the brand new captain Scott Edwards came to the crease. Adil Rashid seemed to have him lbw. Not for the first time in this Series there was a successful review. It turned out not to be a googly or topspinner, but a regular legspinner which would have missed the offstump.

With beautiful shots, including a wristy De Leede cover drive for four and an arsenal of sweepshots from Edwards, the total was built up. Edwards survived two reviews from the English and Bas de Leede copied what O'Dowd did on Friday by breaking a window of the media tent with a six over long on.

De Leede (34) used his feet well playing the spinners. Still, it was 97/4 in the 21st over when he tried to hit Livingstone over mid-on. The less well-timed shot ended up in the hands of Willey. That meant an end to the partnership of 61 runs of Edwards and De Leede.

Teja Nidamanuru started energetically and hit some perfectly timed boundaries. On the other side of the wicket, Edwards did not appear to be bothered by any captaincy pressure. He played a fantastic knock, even when the fast (87 mph) Brydon Carse came back into the attack.

With a jewel of a six over the top, Edwards brought his 50 on the board. The fifth wicket fell at 170 when Nidamanuru (28) was bowled by Willey. This partnership amounted to 73 runs.

Edwards got the roughly 5,500 spectators on the benches with an outrageous reverse scoop for six off Willey. However, Willey took revenge when he caused an unlikely direct hit from deep square leg that meant the end of Edwards (78).

Tim Pringle, unfortunately, could not liven up his debut with any runs, because he did not read a googly from Rashid properly and was bowled through the gate.

Logan van Beek and Shane Snater entertained the crowd with, admittedly not the biggest, but the most spectacular partnership (of 44 runs) of the Orange innings. Shane Snater pounded a six over square leg. Van Beek also came to the party with two huge sixes over the top, one of which was on the last ball of the innings. That hit brought the total to a respectable 235/7, so 5.7 per over.

Innings England

Due to a misfield in the covers, Jason Roy already managed to find the boundary on the very first ball. The third ball was a perfectly timed square drive with the same end result. Roy, who had failed in the first innings, was now on song with a classy innings.

The 100 partnership with his partner Phil Salt came over in the fifteenth. Both batsmen didn't really do anything spectacular: a little more than a run a ball with mainly regular cricket strokes.

Aryan Dutt, who was initially dealt with severely, was eventually successful. First, Roy (73) got a thick outside edge that disappeared into the grateful hands of Snater. Then Salt (77) was bowled through the gate by the 19-year-old offspinner. And Tom Cooper had success too, when Morgan (0, his second duck of the Series) saw an outside edge disappear into the hands of (again) Snater.

Not Jos Buttler, but Liam Livingstone got the chance to finish the job for the English. However, he had not reckoned with a beauty from debuting left-handed spinner Tim Pringle that caught the top of offstump.

Dutt thought he had Malan lbw. However, the umpteenth review in this Series showed that the ball would have gone over the stumps. Without further loss of wickets, the elegant lefthanders Dawid Malan (36 not out) and Moeen Ali (42 not out) brought the win to the visitors.

Acting coach Ryan Cook looked back on two different games: "In the first game we saw how a truly world class team operates. With the bat we did a pretty decent job chasing a record total but their skill with the bat on an excellent pitch was extraordinary and lesson for us. There is no doubt that all of our players will be better for the experience being exposed to this standard of skill and thinking”

"Today we chose to bat first. Our partnerships weren't big enough and were broken at inopportune times throughout the innings. We might have been able to put up a competitive total of around 260 runs on the board. The pitch then slowed a bit later in the day as expected but England got off to a strong start. We fought back well however, taking some important wickets and showed some fight which we can take some positives from going into Wednesday's final game.”

Towards the end of the match, captain Pieter Seelaar announced his departure from the international cricket scene (see a separate message on the KNCB website). Cook: "Pieter is a great leader and a great man. Our players were sad and shocked when he announced that he would stop but are fully supportive. He is revered by the group and he has achieved so much in the Dutch shirt. He has tremendous experience and value to add to the team and hopefully, he can stay close to the group moving forward.”