Netherlands and the art of meticulous visualisation

There was a sea of blue. 

Nope, India weren’t playing the Netherlands. It was Nepal. When Rohit Paudel walked out at the toss, Ian Bishop struggled a bit to hear Paudel thanks to the raging audience, who kept screaming at the top of their lungs. 

It wasn’t Kirtipur or Mulpani; it was in a completely different continent here in the United States of America, a country known for dreaming audaciously. Nepal was dreaming; their fans were dreaming, but amidst their big dreams, they were caught failing to deal with reality. 

That reality was the Netherlands’ bowling plan. It wasn't new that the Dutch side were tactically astute; they have always planned everything to the T. 

Vivian Kingma - swinging it away

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Vivian Kingma had a bit of Naseem Shah aura against Nepal. The bespectacled genius left Nepal so disoriented that the batters were constantly going around in circles. While being gentle with his pace, Kingma wasn’t so gentle on the Nepalese batters, taking the ball as late as possible away from the right-hander’s reach, almost like teasing a kid with a piece of chocolate.

It was evident in his only spell of four long overs, where he swung away 13 deliveries, with Anil Sah being the only batter to score a boundary in the wide region. 33.3% of his deliveries on the day beat the bat, with a false shot % of 58.3. While that isn’t the highest percentage, that outswing left Nepal in tatters. 

20 balls of outswing, 13 dot balls, and only one King-ma. Who said the United States of America can’t host a Test match? 

Tim Pringle - slow and back of a length

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While Kingma was swinging it away, the left-arm spinner Tim Pringle had a rather different approach, trying to make the batters cut him or sweep him, which resulted in Nepal’s downfall. 

Whenever he bowled back of a length in the good length area, it put the batters under immense pressure, and that fetched him two wickets at an average of 1.5. In that length, he conceded just three runs in 11 balls. Plenty of pressure was built from both ends, a major reason why Nepal were bundled out cheaply. 

Logan van Beek - target the stumps

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Unlike Kingma, Logan van Beek had a completely different plan - attacking the stumps. Van Beek persisted with that plan, with two of his wickets coming when he targeted the stumps or bowled in a channel where the stumps were brought into play.

The Nepalese batters could only score six runs off seven balls whenever he bowled in that channel. His plan was slightly different towards the end when he mixed it with a short ball that caught Abinash Bohra by surprise. 

Paul van Meekeren - variations

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Paul van Meekeren had more pace than any of the other Dutch bowlers. Kushal Malla was on the move with some aggressive batting display, and that’s where van Meekeran mixed up his pace, completely catching Malla off guard.

Malla was through the motion, but it was an off-cutter which ended up in the safe hands of Max O’Dowd. It didn’t end there, with van Meekeren wobble seaming the ball back into Sompal Kami, leaving him bamboozled. 25% of his balls were short, which made Kami expect a similar one and ultimately get bamboozled by a beauty that seamed in.

Bas de Leede - Test match length

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“At the start, there was swing with the rain around, but as the innings went forward, we bowled back of a length and kept it straight,” van Beek said after the first innings.

It was certainly what Bas de Leede was aiming to do: bowl a Test match length. In most ways, de Leede is the perfect prototype of what Vernon Philander does: bowl a nagging length and make it tough for the batters.

10 of his 24 deliveries were in that length area, where his economy rate was 2.7. His modus operandi was to just take the ball slightly away from the right-handers, which resulted in the downfall of the dangerous Dipendra Singh Airee and Karan KC towards the end. 

Wolves hunt in packs, and, on the day, Netherlands’ bowling unit was that - hungry wolves, all waiting to feast upon Nepal.

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