The Netherlands misses opportunity against Bangladesh for historic World Cup win
Published at 24 October, 2022The Netherlands has not been able to beat Bangladesh. In the first Super 12 match the end result was 144-135 (Ackermann 62). Paul van Meekeren excelled; not only as a bowler but also as a batsman he almost handed the Netherlands a victory.
Where most toss winners will bat first in this T20 World Cup, the Netherlands chose to field. That will certainly have had to do with the weather forecast: eleven degrees, cloudy and rainy.
With Shariz Ahmad in for the injured Van der Merwe and Logan van Beek for Timm van der Gugten, the Netherlands looked eager. In the sixth over, the Dutch celebrated their first success. A mistimed pullshot by Soumya Sarkar swirled into the hands of Bas de Leede at short mid wicket. Van Meekeren, who again reached 145 km/h, was the bowler.
20-year-old Tim Pringle brings a lot of energy onto the field. As a bowler, he seemed to be attacked on his very first ball, but the top edge was caught by Logan van Beek: 47/2. Just like Pringle, Logan van Beek was successful in his first over. Litton Das tried to drive a length ball 'on the up' and paid the price: 60/3. Moments later, T20 World Cup debutant Shariz Ahmad was ecstatic when Bas de Leede brilliantly caught a slog sweep from Shakib al Hasan on the square boundary: 63/4 in the tenth over.
After a short rain break, the Dutch struck again. Yasir Ali Chowdury was late on a fast yorker of the outstanding Van Meekeren: 76/5. It was a pity for the Netherlands that Pringle misjudged a simple chance at deep mid wicket in the sixteenth over. Moments later Edwards could not reach an Afif top edge. De Leede was lucky when Narul Hasan just hit the ball into Van Meekeren’s hands at fine leg and top scorer Afif gloved a ball - also outside leg stump - into the hands of keeper Edwards who dived full stretch to his right.
Bangladesh (144) was in a hurry to get a decent target on the board. Musaddek (20 off twelve balls) provided this with a quickfire innings. Van Meekeren and De Leede took two wickets each.
Netherlands innings
144 was the – on paper - gettable target. But the start of the Dutch innings was disastrous; Vikram Singh and Bas de Leede both went on the first ball.
The last thing a team needs after the fall of two quick wickets is a run out. However, O'Dowd and Ackermann had a misunderstanding of which the Netherlands’ best batsman fell victim, followed shortly afterwards by Tom Cooper's 'diamond duck' run out: 15/4.
Colin Ackermann, who was not successful in the Group Stage, now showed his class. Along with Edwards, he made 44 runs for the fifth wicket until Edwards (16) was caught playing a reverse sweep. Pringle and Van Beek could not make the difference, but Ackermann recorded a nice half century with a series of beautiful cover drives.
When Ackermann (62 off 48 balls) was caught, it seemed over and out, but tailender Van Meekeren had other plans. He impressively made 24 runs off only fourteen balls. Eighteen runs off the last three balls; in theory it could be done. However, his heroics ended up in the hands of the deep mid wicket fielder. The Netherlands reached 135. In the Bangladesh attack, Taskin excelled with 4-25.
After the match captain Edwards was realistic: "144 was fifteen to twenty runs under par for Bangladesh and we thought we controlled the game. But if you lose four wickets in the Powerplay, that's not ideal." On Thursday, October 27, the Netherlands will play against India.
Photo credit: ICC/Getty images
