A moment to use the word “BLIMEY”, England won the match but only just. The 5th Match of the ICC World Cup 2011 of Group B was the most interesting one till now.
Also Read: Ryan Neil ten Doeschate – A Dutch Major
The Netherlands would be considered as minnows by many, but not many know that they played against England in the T20 World Cup and, yes! They beat them.
But today was not that day, even though their batting was brilliant they fell short in the bowling standard, this is something the Dutch need to improve for the future.
Netherlands won the toss and elected to bat first, a good decision considering they ended up making 292 runs.
Openers Alexei Kervezee and Wesley Barresi made 16 runs and 29 runs respectively, the first wicket of Kervezee was taken by Tim Bresnan and the second by Graeme Swann.
Tom Cooper made a well crafted 47 runs of 73 balls but was dismissed by Paul Collingwood. Ryan Ten Doeschate was the batsman of the day for the Netherlands as he possibly gave the Brits something to worry about. He made 119 runs of 110 balls and was dismissed ultimately by Stuart Broad who was able to get his break through and the most important one as well.
Bas Zuiderent made just 1 run in 10 balls and his wicket was claimed by Graeme Swann, Tom de Grooth made 28 runs before he was bowled out by Stuart Broad.
Captain Peter Borren made 38 runs and remained not out till the end of their innings along with Mudassar Bukhari who made 6 runs.
A total of 292 runs of a team that is considered to be a minnow is brilliant, more than a world class team can manage at times.
The England team would be able to chase this total in 5.84 runs per over, Captain Andrew Strauss lead his side from the front making 88 runs of 83 balls, he was dismissed by Mudassar Bukhari. Kevin Pietersen made 39 runs of 61 balls; his wicket was claimed by Seelaar.
Ryan Ten Doeschate not only made a century for his side but also took two crucial wickets that could have helped them snag a win; this definitely was a one man show.
He took the wickets of Jonathan Trott who made 62 runs of 65 balls and Ian Bell who made 33 runs of 40 balls.
Paul Collingwood and Ravi Bopara took the England side to victory making 30 runs each.
This was a tight match in terms of runs and balls towards the end, Netherlands might have actually won this one if they had brought in as much aggression in their bowling attack as they brought with the batting.
Ultimately it was England’s game because they had enough wickets in hand to be able to chase the total.
England must brush up on their fielding as it was quite dreadful in this match, misfields or not even attempted catches were quite comical, especially the one involving James Anderson and Kevin Pietersen on Graeme Swann’s bowling, they both were running and in the end they both stopped as the ball plonked itself between them.
The Man of the match went to the Dutchman, Ryan ten Doeschate for his 119 runs and two wickets; even with England’s victory there was no denying who deserved it more.
Rest assured England will bring their ‘A’ game against India on Sunday the 27th of February.
Suddenly the match between India and Netherlands in Delhi seems much more interesting than before.
Tags: Cricket, England, ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, Nagpur, Netherlands, Ryan Neil ten Doeschate, World Cup