Stokes and Woakes save England against fighting Dutch
Published at 08 November, 2023The Dutch men’s team has not been able to win its penultimate World Cup match against England. In Pune (India) England batted first and scored 339 runs. The answer from the Netherlands was not convincing: 179 all out.
On Pune’s batting paradise, England opted to bat first. In the opening overs, Logan van Beek - with the exception of his first ball, a beautiful yorker with which he almost surprised Dawid Malan - struggled with his length. Dutt was more successful; in the seventh over, Jon Bairstow decided to play the pull shot. The top edge ended up in Paul van Meekeren’s hands (48/1).
After his narrow escape off the very first ball he faced, Dawid Malan hit a flurry of boundaries. There were ten fours in his half-century, which he reached in only 36 balls. Joe Root - not very productive so far in this World Cup - made 28 runs before being bowled by Logan van Beek. Root attempted his reverse sweep and the ball went through his legs.
A brilliant fielding effort by Van Beek led to the run out of Malan (87) (139/3). When Bas de Leede surprised Harry Brook (11) with a short ball that Brook mistimed, it was suddenly 164/4. In this phase, the Dutch also reduced the run rate to around six runs per over.
Captain Jos Buttler’s form crisis was underlined when he hit a ball from Van Meekeren into the hands of Teja Nidamanuru at mid off (178/5). Not for the first time, the groundfielding of the Dutch was exceptional, as evidenced by numerous good stops, both in the 30-yard circle and in the outfield.
An exception was the - admittedly difficult - catching opportunity that Ben Stokes gave when he was on 41. Unfortunately for the Netherlands, it turned out to be an expensive mistake. Stokes hammered Dutt for 24 in an over; the 46th went for fourteen, including eight wides, the 47th for 17 runs. England raced to a score of well over 300. The partnership of Stokes (108) and Woakes (51) for the seventh wicket was worth 129 runs.
Bas de Leede (3-74) picked up the wickets from Woakes and Willey, but expensive final overs resulted in a high final total of 339/9. Van Beek took 2-67, Dutt 2-88, Ackermann was economical with 0-31 in seven overs.
Netherlands innings
Woakes and Willey swung the ball vigorously and immediately caused problems for the Dutch top order. After the fall of the wickets of O'Dowd and Ackermann, Wesley Barresi and Sybrand Engelbrecht brought the score to 67/3.
Engelbrecht got a second life when a seemingly clean catch by Joe Root was not given by the third umpire. Engelbrecht hooked the next ball for six, but moments later Barresi (37) was more than a meter short when he was sent back by Engelbrecht.
In an attempt to accelerate, Engelbrecht (33) found the mid-on-fielder (Woakes). When Bas de Leede played on to Adil Rashid, it was 104/5.
Teja Nidamanuru was dropped by Willey and rubbed salt into the wound with three beautiful sixes. More than nine runs per over were required, but nothing indicated that Edwards and Nidamanuru would give up. Their strong partnership of 59 was broken when Edwards (38) mistimed a ball from Moeen Ali (163/6).
Although the tail didn't come to great performances, Nidamanuru played a great knock batting at 7. The tail could have tried to give Nidamanuru (41 not out) his World Cup half century, but was unable to do so. The last four wickets fell for just sixteen runs.
On November 12, the Netherlands will play its last World Cup game against host country India. the Chinnaswamy Stadium has short boundaries and accommodates 40,000 spectators.
