NAGPUR, India, (Reuters) – England laboured to a thrilling six-wicket victory completed with eight balls to spare over the Netherlands in a Group B match to avert what would have been the first upset of the World Cup yesterday.
The Netherlands batsmen, especially the South Africa-born Ryan ten Doeschate (119), thrived on England’s shoddy bowling and sloppy fielding to power the team to 292-6, a target that seemed quite a test for their opponents’ tweaked batting order.
At least England could console themselves with the third highest successful run chase at a World Cup after the Dutch posted the best score by an associate member against a test-playing nation.
Skipper Andrew Strauss was less than impressed, however. “We got a lot of things wrong with our bowling and we let them off the hook three or four times in the field as well. So it was a very poor first 50 overs,” he said.
“We’ve got take that on the chin, learn from it very quickly because we can’t afford to do that too often. We were very disappointed with ourselves on the field and thankfully the batters got us out of jail.
“We knew if we kept wickets in hand, we’d have a good chance of chasing it down. It was a little bit nervy there at the end, maybe a little more nervy than we would have liked.”
England’s chase got off to a resounding start with Strauss (88) and Kevin Pietersen (39) providing a rollicking 105-run stand before they lost four wickets to find themselves in a spot of bother.
Paul Collingwood’s (30) experience and Ravi Bopara’s (30) improvisation came in handy as England survived some torrid times before completing the tricky chase in the penultimate over.
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Having stunned England in the 2009 Twenty20 World Cup, the Dutch upstarts seemed up to more mischief at the Vidarbha Cricket Association where they batted as if to salvage the reputation of the associate teams which, the game’s governing body believes, have no business being in the World Cup.
Ten Doeschate clobbered three sixes and nine fours in his 110-ball knock and starred in three 50-plus partnerships to provide the cornerstone of the Netherlands’s innings.
He added 78 runs with Tom Cooper (47), 64 with Tom de Grooth (28) and 61 with skipper Peter Borren (35 not out) to set a stiff target for Strauss and his men.
After Borren had opted to set a target rather than chasing one, openers Alexei Kervezee (16) and Wesley Barresi (29) looked quite at ease against the English pacers before change bowlers collaborated with stumper Matt Prior to remove both.
Barresi, having hit three fours off Stuart Broad’s third over, top edged a Tim Bresnan delivery and Kervezee fell to Prior’s sharp stumping in Graeme Swann’s first over.
Ten Doeschate ensured there was no panic in the Dutch camp.
He offered dogged resistance in the company of former Australia under-19 player Cooper, consolidated the innings with de Grooth before providing the late charge with Borren.
Borren was fortunate to be called back despite being bowled by Broad as England had one extra fielder outside the circle in that powerplay over.
SCOREBOARD
Netherlands innings
A. Kervezee c Prior b Bresnan 16
W. Barresi st Prior b Swann 29
T. Cooper c Anderson b Collingwood
47
R. ten Doeschate c Bopara b Broad
119
B. Zuiderent c Collingwood b Swann 1
T. de Grooth b Broad 28
P. Borren not out 35
M. Bukhari not out 6
Extras: (b-3 lb-3 w-2 nb-3) 11
Total: (for six wickets, 50 overs) 292
Fall of wickets: 1-36 2-58 3-136 4-149 5-213 6-274
Did not bat: P. Seelaar, B. Loots, B. Westdijk
Bowling: Anderson 10-0-72-0 (2nb), Broad 10-2-65-2 (1nb, 1w), Bresnan 10-0-49-1 (1w), Swann 10-0-35-2, Collingwood 8-0-46-1, Pietersen 2-0-19-0
England innings
A. Strauss c Cooper b Mudassar Bukhari
88
K. Pietersen c Borren b Seelaar 39
J. Trott st Barresi b ten Doeschate 62
I. Bell b ten Doeschate 33
P. Collingwood not out 30
R. Bopara not out 30
Extras: (b-1 lb-2 w-11) 14
Total: (for four wickets; 48.4 overs) 296
Fall of wickets: 1-105 2-166 3-224 4-241
Did not bat: M. Prior, T. Bresnan, S. Broad, G. Swann, J. Anderson
Bowling: Mudassar Bukhari 9-0-54-1, Westdijk 7-0-41-0, Loots 9.4-0-74-0 (2w), Seelaar 10-0-54-1 (2w), ten Doeschate 10-0-47-2 (1w), Cooper 3-0-23-0.
