Team effort brings the Dutch past fighting Nepal
Published at 04 June, 2024The Netherlands has won its first T20 World Cup game. In Dallas it bowled out Nepal for 106 runs. Nepal, however, made the Dutch work hard for the win. It took 18.4 overs and a Max O’Dowd half century to get the Dutch over the line.
The Netherlands won the toss and chose to bowl first. Just when commentator Tom Moody wondered why the Netherlands started with Tim Pringle, the left arm spinner took a wicket (10/1).
When Logan van Beek took over from Pringle, he also struck immediately. Now the dangerous opening pair Bhurtel/ Sheikh (17/2) was eliminated. A second LBW was given but turned out to be an inside edge.
The ball was doing a lot, swung away (Kingma!) or came back off the seam. The Nepalese batters had a lot of trouble with this variation, as evidenced by 27 dots in the first six overs.
Paudel and Sah carried out some remedial work, but not at a pace that was of concern for the Dutch. On the alleged seamers’ wicket it was spinner Pringle who claimed the third wicket (40/3, caught by Logan van Beek). Van Meekeren tricked Malla (ct O’Dowd) and when Van Beek took his second catch, it was 53/5. Only the young captain Rohit Paudel (35) gave Nepal some prestige.
In addition to the outstanding Van Beek (3-18) and Pringle (3-20), Van Meekeren (2-19) and De Leede (2-22) had excellent bowling figures. O'Dowd and Kingma took two catches each and Van Beek three.
Netherlands innings
Given the first innings even chasing a low score promised not to be easy at all. The Netherlands had anything but a dream start when Michael Levitt already mistimed a ball in the second over (3/1).
Nepal missed a big run out chance and a chance at deep mid wicket off consecutive balls. It was 43/2/8.2 when Vikram Singh (22) played across the line.
O'Dowd and Engelbrecht brought the score to a seemingly comfortable 71 when Engelbrecht (14) was unfortunate to be run out (71/3/13.1). When Edwards played on, the countless Nepalese fans had real hopes for a sensation.
Nepal made the Dutch work hard for their runs. At 89/4, O'Dowd was dropped at long off. This third miss in the field turned out to be the death knell for the Nepalese. O'Dowd (54 not out) reached a valuable half-century and put an end to the Nepalese illusions together with Bas de Leede.
