Dutch women practice strongly in Northern England
Published at 24 April, 2026A national women's selection showed good cricket in Northern England. In the run-up to the T20 World Cup in June, Durham was defeated: 158/4 – 162/4/19.5. A day later, the Netherlands and Lancashire each won a T20 match.
Durham had an impressive opening stand on Wednesday thanks to Fraser (60) and Robson (52), who made a 96-run partnership for the first wicket. Myrthe van den Raad (2-15) got rid of both openers. 158/4 was the challenging target for the Dutch squad, which was missing Heather Siegers and Iris Zwilling, among others. Babette de Leede (40 off 23 balls) and Phebe Molkenboer (34 off 29 balls) gave the Netherlands a quick start (55/1/7 and 87/2/10.1), with Molkenboer's drives (square, back foot and over the covers) and De Leede's pull shots as highlights.
Sterre Kalis and Robine Rijke worked their way to victory, albeit at a slower pace than the openers. Eventually, Carlijn van Koolwijk (14) gave Sterre Kalis good support in a 38-run partnership for the fourth wicket. Kalis finished it off with 48 not out from 39 balls and two boundaries in the final over of the match. View the scorecard and videos here.
A day later, a Lancashire team made 162/5, with Scottish Darcy Carter (92) as top scorer. Frédérique Overdijk took 2-31 for the Dutch selection and Silver Siegers 1-15. Additionally, Robine Rijke had a beautiful direct hit.
Although only two Dutch batters reached double figures (Babette de Leede 29), that was still enough for the – narrow – victory. After all, Sterre Kalis was once again unstoppable; she hit fourteen fours and two sixes and brought the Orange team the win in the final over, as well as securing a fantastic century at the very last moment (100 not out in 56 balls). Scorecard.
In the third and final match, Sanya Khurana opened creditably with 32 runs from 25 balls. It was largely thanks to Robine Rijke (62 not out from 52 balls) that the score was 132/7/20.
Lancashire made optimal use of Sterre Kalis's absence and claimed this match in the final over with 133/4 (Kesteven 72 not out). Silver Siegers took 2-16. See here for the scorecard.
