A solid effort from the Netherlands bowling attack restricted Ireland to a total of 163. Fred Klaassen, Logan van Beek and Timm van der Gugten shared eight wickets between them as only two Ireland batters got 25+ scores. Stephan Myburgh’s 74 helped the Netherlands get over the line and record a historic 2-1 series win.
Netherlands produced a clinical performance in the third ODI as they completed a 2-1 series win to kickstart their campaign in this ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Super League. It was a win set up by the bowlers and the opening batters.
Ireland won the toss and inevitably opted to bat first on what appeared to be a great wicket. However, they had a nightmarish start. In his first two overs, Fred Klaassen struck to send back both the Ireland openers, including an in-form Paul Stirling, who has been carrying this Ireland batting line-up. Vivian Kingma knocked over skipper Andy Balbirnie to leave Ireland, reeling at 28/3 at the end of the powerplay.
Harry Tector and George Dockrell tried to resurrect the innings and added 89 runs for the fourth wicket. The duo batted for 23 overs, and the runs were hard to come by. However, both the well-set batters were dismissed in the space of four overs. Logan van Beek got the key scalps, and that started the slide. Timm van der Gugten came in and picked up a couple of wickets, and Ireland crumbled to 163 allout.
In reply, Netherlands got a strong start at the top of the order. Stephan Myburgh and Max O’Dowd put on 66 runs for the first wicket. Ireland failed to get a breakthrough in the powerplay, and the hosts had fetched 48 runs before Simi Singh got them their first breakthrough. The off-spinner knocked over O’Dowd for 36 before Barry McCarthy dismissed Scott Edwards.
But a couple of vital partnerships ensured that the Netherlands don’t lose their way, and Myburgh led the charge. He joined hands with Musa Ahmed and Bas de Leede to add partnerships of 29 and 62 runs, respectively. Both batters didn’t make significant contributions but importantly stuck around as Myburgh did the bulk of the scoring.
The veteran left-handed opener was out on the brink of victory. Ireland picked up a couple more wickets towards the end, but it was too late as the Netherlands wrapped up the run-chase with 25 balls to spare.
It was their first-ever series win over Ireland and just their third ODI win overall against Ireland. In addition to this, Netherlands became the first Associate nation to win two successive ODI series’ against full-member nations. They had recorded a 2-0 win over Zimbabwe back in 2019.
Brief Scores
Ireland 163 (Tector 58, Dockrell 40, Klaassen 3/23, van Beek 3/29, van der Gugten 2/22) lost to Netherlands 166/6 (Myburgh 74, O’DowIt d 36, Singh 3/29, Little 1/35) by four wickets
