The Netherlands pay high price for dropped catches

The atmosphere in Amstelveen was unprecedented, with about 6,000 spectators on the sun-drenched stands. At least two-thirds of the audience consisted of Englishmen who greeted the choice of the Netherlands to bowl first with loud cheers.

The cheers were initially muted when Shane Snater bowled Jason Roy in the second over. His partner Phil Salt, on the other hand, soon managed to find the boundary on a number of occasions. Lefthander Dawid Malan also showed his class with well-timed shots. Six runs per over was a good basis for the English.

The bowling was o.k. at this stage, but a few centimeters off line and length invariably meant a boundary. Effortlessly, Salt and Malan managed a great partnership on the excellent strip. 67/1/10 after the first powerplay meant that the scoring rate had already risen a bit.

Snater dropped Salt (who was on 40) at deep point off the bowling of De Leede. A second wicket on 76 would have been the welcome result. Seelaar thought he had Malan lbw, but umpire Akram's decision was overturned. The result was that the Netherlands looked at 107/1/15 during the drinks break.

Malan easily reached his 50 in the 22nd over, followed by the 150 partnership one ball later and a century for Phil Salt in the 26th over. Halfway through the innings, the score was 174-1.

In the thirtieth over it finally became 223/2 when Boissevain caught Salt (122) off the bowling of Van Beek. And there he came, Jos Buttler, leading runscorer in the IPL. In the 35th over from Pieter Seelaar he proved he too is of flesh and blood. Vikram Singh, fielding at long on, ran under a chance and in the same over Musa Ahmad failed to hold on to a chance at long off.

Dropping Buttler twice in one over proved to be too much. He reached his 50 off just 26 balls and then went wild. Bas de Leede was introduced to Buttler's rampshot and consequently disappeared on the roof of the new KNCB building. Van Beek was hit for a monster of more than 110 meters.

Buttlers 100 came off only 47 balls. At this stage, it didn't matter who was bowling; also half mishits went well for six. Fifteen fielders would not have been enough to stop the onslaught.

It was 407/3 in the 45th over when Bas de Leede caught Malan for 125; Seelaar fully deserved this wicket. And on the very next ball, Seelaar also got his opposite number Eoin Morgan lbw thanks to a review: 407/4.

And in came Liam Livingstone…. He did not intend to reduce the scoring rate, on the contrary. An over from Boissevain went for 32 and when Boissevain missed his pest, fielding at deep square leg, the counter of the number of missed catches stood at four. The wheels came off, as the British say, but in this case the whole chassis came along.

England steamed through to a new world record, 498, with Buttler making 162 runs out of 70 balls with fourteen sixes and seven fours. Livingstone’s contribution seemed modest, but he had a formidable strike rate with 66 off 22 (6x6, 6x4). Seelaar (2-83), Snater and Van Beek took the wickets. Seelaar in particular deserved better figures.

Innings Netherlands

Vikram Singh could not continue his excellent streak against West Indies (b Willey for 13). His partner Max O'Dowd (55) however batted wonderfully again.

Musa Ahmad (21) tried a rampshot shot facing Moeen Ali, but had not reckoned with Adil Rashid who grabbed a beautiful catch only inches off the ground. Tom Cooper (23 out of 40) could not yet live up to his reputation. Bas de Leede (28) and Seelaar (25) played decent knocks, but the show in the middle order was stolen by Scott Edwards, who made a beautiful 72 off 56 balls.

Two balls before the end, the Netherlands were all out for 266 -- a loss margin of 232 runs.