Emirates down again against strong Dutch
Published at 12 May, 2025In Utrecht, the Netherlands has taken another step towards qualifying for the World Cup in 2027. The United Arab Emirates batted without conviction and brought only 204 runs in the books. Kyle Klein took four wickets for the Dutch. A lightning start with Max O'Dowd (52 runs) as top scorer ensured that the Dutch could not miss the victory.
After several beautiful and successful days at VRA, the WCL2 circus moved to Kampong in Utrecht. Vikram Singh and Viv Kingma came into the team for Teja Nidamanuru (hamstring) and Aryan Dutt. On Kyle Klein's second ball, the Netherlands was already close to a – albeit difficult – chance at second slip. In the seventh over, a second chance was dropped. The young openers recovered somewhat, but found it difficult to score. The causes were economical first spells by Klein and Kingma and great stops in the field.
Where Klein was initially unlucky, Paul van Meekeren was successful when he got Aryansh Sharma (15) LBW (43/1). After a long rehabilitation due to a stress fracture in a vertebra, Bas de Leede took the ball in hand again. And with success: Kalyan hit a half volley from the 'Prince of Voorburg' into the hands of Max O'Dowd at mid off (54/2). Rahul Chopra (19) – centurion against Scotland -- was furious when he was called up for an impossible single and fell victim to the combination Lion-Cachet/ Van der Merwe (81/3/24.4).
The UAE had seven wickets in hand halfway through the innings, but hardly any runs on the board. That didn't get any better when Lion-Cachet took a wicket and Kyle Klein finally took his more than deserved wicket (cb Edwards, (98/5). Captain Edwards' changes worked fantastically in this phase.
For the neutral fan, there was not much to enjoy; UAE put on the handbrake and hardly looked for singles, let alone boundaries. The exception was Asif Khan, who made 75 runs as number three and shared a partnership of 101 runs with Parashar (41) for the sixth wicket. Four run-out opportunities and a number of catching opportunities were not capitalized on. Kyle Klein saw his persistence rewarded with 4-44, while UAE stumbled to a hardly defendable 204/9.
Netherlands innings
The contrast couldn't be bigger when Max O'Dowd and Michael Levitt took up the bat. 48/0/5 was the result, with a monstrously big six from Levitt in the fifth over. It was only when left arm spinner Simranjeet Singh (1-41) appeared on the scene that the run rate dropped slightly. Moreover, the first success from a UAE perspective was celebrated when Levitt (39) just missed the end of the first Powerplay (77/1/9.5).
Max O'Dowd reached his half century in just 38 balls, but hit the ball into the hands of the long on shortly afterwards (122/2). Scott Edwards (42) ran himself out before Bas de Leede hit the winning runs.
This victory puts the Netherlands proudly in the lead in the World Cup League 2, of which the four best countries will go to the World Cup qualifying tournament in 2027. Upcoming matches are UAE vs Scotland on May 14 and Scotland vs Netherlands on May 16. Both matches are at Kampong in Utrecht from 11.00 am. Free admission. Or follow the action live via icc.tv
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