O’Dowd heroics beat Munsey’s Scotland in unlikely record runchase
Published at 12 June, 2025The Dutch men's team has been able to take revenge for the previous defeat against Scotland in an incredible way. In Dundee it was 369/6-374/6 this time. George Munsey was unassailable with 191 runs. However, the Dutch team started the mammoth task energetically and kept believing in a victory, mainly thanks to a formidable innings by opening batsman Max O'Dowd, who remained not out with a career-best 158.
Scotland won the toss and opted to bat. From the start the Scots batted positively, especially the man-in-form George Munsey. There was no stopping the strong Scot who - partly thanks to fourteen fours and eleven (!) sixes - came off the field with a career-best 191. Viv Kingma was the one who at least stopped Munsey from getting to a double hundred. Thanks in part to Matt Cross (59), Scotland reached 369, their third-highest score in One Day cricket history. Michael Levitt (2-41 in eight overs) had the best bowling figures. The Dutch fielding was mediocre at best.
Innings Netherlands
Michael Levitt and Max O’Dowd started energetically to climb the Scottish mountain of 369 runs. O’Dowd started with some beautiful cover drives and Levitt – who had more than the majority of the strike in the early stages -- hit a huge six in the fourth over and a beautiful cover drive in the eighth. After eight overs it was 59/0. Shortly afterwards, Sharif kept Levitt (44) from his half-century (67/1).
After the departure of Levitt and Lion-Cachet, O’Dowd increasingly got into the groove. He reached his fifty – after being dropped on 48 – one ball later in the nineteenth over. 127/2/19 was still a promising score. However, the partnership of Edwards (32) and O’Dowd came to an end in the 21st over (143/3).
With O’Dowd – almost run out on 70 - and Nidamanuru on the pitch, something beautiful emerged – a partnership of 111 runs for the fifth over – which the Dutch could hope would cause a miracle. A score of 206/4/30 – with O’Dowd now in the nineties – was in any case not a hopeless mission. The personal milestone – his first century in ODIs – was reached in the 35th over, but it was still a difficult task at 236/4/35.
An obvious boundary was not given, whereupon Max O’Dowd simply hit a wonderful six over extra cover. Nidamanuru (51) fought back after a lean patch with a great knock, but it was 279/5/40.1 when he was caught on the leg side boundary.
Having someone of Noah Croes’ calibre at number seven is pure luxury and the righthander proved that with a brilliant 50 from 29 balls. His entire repertoire of shots was on display. He was dismissed, but after his innings Max O’Dowd and Roelof van der Merwe only had to score a run a ball to get over the line. Thus it was ‘World Cup Qualifier 2023 revisited’ as the Scots fell victim again to an improbable runchase.
Photo credit: Cricket Scotland / Ian Jacobs
