The Netherlands A qualifies for T10 Championship Week
Published at 24 September, 2022The Netherlands has qualified, although not entirely without problems, for the Championship Week of the Dream11 European T10 tournament in Malaga. It was too strong for Sweden (144-96) and also won the final, in which Aryan Dutt excelled 3-14, against Denmark (134-119).
Against Sweden, lefthander Musa Ahmad picked up where he left off on Thursday with an impressive 35-run innings off just nine balls. Boris Gorlee also looked good with 12 out of four balls, but was run out, and when Ryan Klein was caught behind off an outswinger, it seemed to get tricky for the Netherlands. However, Braat (20 out of ten balls) and Floyd (28 out of eleven) brought the score to 98/5 after six overs.
The Swedes fought back characteristically -The Netherlands was 117/7 after eight overs - and the Orange had to settle for 'only' 144 runs, thanks to a good final over that yielded eighteen runs.
Sweden innings
The Swedes have several extremely strong batsmen in Nusratullah Sultan, Shere Ali and Azam Khalil. Shere Ali however hit a full toss hard into the hands of Boissevain in the covers and keeper Asad had two stumpings.
Despite some mistakes in the field, Sweden did not come close to the Dutch score. That was thanks to smart and varied bowling by Ryan Klein (1-12) and Saqib (2-15). Clayton Floyd (3-26) bowled a bizarre over: 6 W 6 W 6 W. Only Sultan now had to be dismissed and the combination Saqib / Musa provided this crucial breakthrough: 44/6 in the fifth over. Boissevain followed this up with a wicket maiden (!), which is extremely rare in T10 cricket. Sweden finished at 96, 49 short off the target.
Dutt destroys Denmark
In the final, the Netherlands earned the ticket for the Championship Week from October 10, but it was anything but a walk-over.
In the early evening everything looked fine. Orange managed a solid 134 with Olivier Elenbaas (32) and Saqib Zulfiqar (30) as top scorers.
Denmark quickly lost two wickets off the bowling of Kingma and at 12/2 the win for the Orange already seemed to be in the bag, with Bharaj and Thanikaithasan back in the pavilion. However, the big, strong Magnus Kristensen had other plans and went after both legspinners who went for 37 runs in two overs.
At this stage, Denmark seemed to cruise to victory until Clayton Floyd had the dangerous Saran Aslam (33 off 13) caught, and in the eighth over Kingma caught top scorer Kristensen (57 off 21) at short fine leg off Dutt. One ball later, history repeated itself (c Kingma b Dutt) and the chances of winning were completely turned. Dutt even deserved a hat-trick, but Saqib was unable to control the ball on the boundary. Still, the over cost only seven runs, and Floyd's next only eight.
Since Player of the Match Dutt also had a great final over in store, the Netherlands still won (Denmark 119). The relief was great among the players who fully deserved this qualification. The Netherlands will return to Malaga for the Championship Week in just over two weeks.
