The Netherlands start T20 qualification convincingly against PNG
Published at 11 July, 2022The Dutch men got off to an excellent start in the qualifying tournament for the T20 World Cup. PNG was comfortably beaten 163-111.
After winning the toss, the Netherlands (with three T20I-debutants: Tim Pringle, Shariz Ahmad, and Teja Nidamanuru) chose to bat, starting with seasoned openers O'Dowd and Myburgh. The latter let it be known some time ago that he would be quitting the ODI format, but is still available for T20s. A smooth start was made by both batsmen and after three overs the score was 28/0. The strike mainly went to Myburgh, who made good use of it. Moments later, the roles were reversed and O'Dowd came alongside with a number of boundaries. The fifty partnership was reached in the sixth over.
In the eighth over the first wicket fell: Myburgh 39 from 24 balls. 78/1 seemed the ideal basis to head for the 200. But that didn't work out, due to a stronger period for PNG.
After Myburgh and O'Dowd (32), only Bas de Leede (33) got above 30. Thanks to a final appeal by Logan van Beek (19 off 14) the final score was 163 runs.
Right from the start, the Dutch bowlers put pressure on the PNG batsmen. After the departure of both openers (wickets for Van Beek and De Leede), it was a matter of breaking the crucial partnership of Charles Amini and Sese Bau. In the twelfth over, Paul van Meekeren made the breakthrough when he got Amini (21) caught by Van Beek: 71/3. At the drop of this third wicket, PNG were making 6.2 runs per over, so they were certainly not defeated yet.
After that, however, all the Orange bowlers showed strong spells. Attempts by PNG to accelerate were nipped in the bud. When top scorer Sese Bau (35) was caught by Fred Klaassen in the seventeenth over, it was 94/6 and PNG had to make 70 runs in the last four overs - an impossible task. All the bowlers came off the field with presentable figures. Logan van Beek 3-17 and Bas de Leede 2-13 stood out a bit, but Klaassen 2-18 and Van Meekeren 2-22 also performed excellently.
On Tuesday 12 July the Netherlands will play against Hong Kong. The match can be watched via ICC TV.
