NEWS
Follow UsThe 2023 ODI World Cup keeps giving us unexpected results. In the latest event, the Netherlands have defeated Bangladesh by 87 runs in the first game of the competition at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
The Dutch won the toss and opted to bat first. They lost both their openers within the first three overs and later slumped to 63/4 with their top four back in the hut. For the second time in the tournament, their skipper Scott Edwards stepped up when the chips were down. He scored an 89-ball 68 which ushered the team to a total of 229.
In a 78-run stand for the sixth wicket, Edwards found support in Sybrand Engelbrecht which took the Dutch from 107/5 to 185/6. Once that partnership was broken, the lower order carried the team to 229.
The Bangladesh batters didn’t step up again. Paul van Meekeren’s 4/23 and handy contributions from the rest bundled out Bangladesh for 142 in 42.2 overs.
“We were saying if we could get 220 plus, we were in the game,” said Edwards after the game.
“The bottom order guys got us to a very competitive total. The bowlers have been awesome. Aryan, Colin, Bas everyone. We have been superb on the field. Bit of everything. The system is getting more professional in Netherlands,” Edwards spoke on the victory.
During his innings, Edwards was dropped twice in the 16th over when he was on naught.
"I thought we bowled really well but we were sloppy in the field. We should have restricted them to 160-170 from the position we were in,” Shakib Al Hasan, the Bangladesh skipper, said in the post-match presentation.
Shakib also spoke on Bangladesh’s poor batting returns. They have the lowest strike rate (77.3) and second lowest batting average (24.7) batting average in the tournament as yet.
“But we have been poor with the bat all tournament and this is as bad as it gets. There is more cricket to come and we have to pick up ourselves and I know it's hard but we have to try to finish the tournament on a high,” Shakib enunciated on the defeat.
The right-arm seamer, van Meekeren was adjudged the player-of-the-match for his 4/23 in 7.2 overs. He picked wickets of Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Najmul Shanto and Taskin Ahmed.
“Pretty special day. At the halfway stage, 230-240 would have been par we reckoned. Aryan Dutt and van Beek kept things tight in the powerplay. Pure team performance tonight,” van Meekeren reflected on the win.
Both van Meekeren and Edwards stressed that Netherlands’ goal is to reach the semis.
“We’ve said earlier we want to go till the semis, and for that we need to win games,” said van Meekeren.
“We train incredibly hard. We always spoke at the start of the tournament that we aim for the semis. That remains our goal but we have a few tough games coming up,” Edwards said.
Netherlands lost their previous game against Australia, by a margin of 309 runs - the biggest World Cup defeat while chasing. However, Edwards said the team moved on pretty quickly to focus on this clash against Bangladesh.
“I think it was easy to be fair. We only had two days off. We were straight into traveling and into our plans,” Edwards answered when asked about the same.
The Netherlands have lifted themselves from the last spot to the eighth. They now play Afghanistan next in Lucknow on November 3. Bangladesh, having won their opening fixture, have now lost five games in a row. Their previous four defeats were against the tournament heavyweights like England, New Zealand, India and South Africa. Now they have lost to the only non-Test playing nation of the tournament in an unfortunate streak. Placed ninth on the points table, they will now lock horns with Pakistan on October 31 at the Eden Gardens.
