Netherlands faded away in the 323 chase as New Zealand further consolidated their position at the top of the points table
Himanshu Agrawal09-Oct-20231:37
McClenaghan: Young has done enough to keep his spot
New Zealand’s innings started with three maidens in a row but ended with them bashing 50 off the last three overs, courtesy Tom Latham, Mitchell Santner and Matt Henry, which propelled them to 322. Netherlands started the chase slowly and never shifted gears as they folded for 223, as New Zealand further consolidated their position at the top of the points table after making it two in two.Player-of-the-Match Santner, who clubbed an unbeaten 36 from 17 balls with the bat, then grabbed 5 for 59 with the ball, and in the process became the first New Zealand spinner to claim a five-for in a men’s ODI World Cup. He varied his pace consistently on a spin-friendly pitch – exactly the trait which makes him threatening – as the highlight of all his wickets was that of Scott Edwards’.Santner slowed it down considerably and went with a wide line outside off to tempt Edwards off the fifth ball of the 35th over. The Netherlands captain had cracked 12 off the three previous deliveries – it included a six and a four – and with the required rate mounting, went slogging across the line, only for the ball to balloon back towards Santner. Thus, at 174 for 6, all of Netherlands’ little-remaining hopes of causing an upset vanished.However, they had New Zealand in a tricky position with the ball at one stage. New Zealand lost 3 for 16 in the death overs – 238 for 3 in the 41st became 254 for 6 in the 45th – but Latham kept defying the Netherlands bowlers at one end. From being 1 off 5 balls after 34 overs, he smashed 53 from 46 despite the slow and gripping nature of the pitch, which proved challenging for all incoming batters barring Latham.Aryan Dutt had removed Mark Chapman to start the 45th over to leave Latham as New Zealand’s only specialist batter, but Netherlands let it slip despite standing a chance of restricting New Zealand to under 300. Before that, Will Young and Rachin Ravindra also hit half-centuries, together adding 77 in 14 overs for the second wicket. Eventually, New Zealand’s innings would be defined by such stands at a steady rate rather than massive ones.Rachin Ravindra and Will Young put on a 77-run stand for the second wicket•ICC via Getty Images
Either side of that partnership, Devon Conway and Young had begun with 67 from 73 balls before Conway fell heaving at Roelof van der Merwe, while Ravindra and Daryl Mitchell added 41 at better than a run a ball. Ravindra, who followed up a career-best 123* against England with 51 against Netherlands, struck at a strike rate of 100. His stay ended only when an agile Edwards moved to his right to gobble a tickle off van der Merwe in the 33rd over.The highlight of Ravindra’s innings, though, was him squeezing a low and dipping full toss just outside off for four between point and short third. Just one over earlier, Ravindra had a stroke of luck going his way when the umpire turned down Netherlands’ appeal for lbw after a yorker from Ryan Klein trapped him in front, only for replays to show umpire’s call on leg stump. While he got a life on 44, Mitchell was dropped on 22 by debutant Sybrand Engelbrecht two balls later.Mitchell ended up hitting 48, including five fours and two sixes. One of those maximums went over long-on, his 22nd six in the region between mid-on and mid-off out of his 24 in ODIs. But it is the runs from Young that would be a positive for New Zealand. He had fallen for 12 in the warm-up against South Africa just before the World Cup started, before strangling himself for a golden duck in the tournament opener against England.Young had faced one maiden out of three which started New Zealand’s innings, but raced away to 27 from 23 deliveries to make up for lost time in the powerplay. That run included five fours and a six, as he went about driving, clipping, slicing and lofting at balls. Young slowed down a bit as Netherlands used plenty of spin, but after getting to his fifty in the 20th over, he clobbered Colin Ackermann for a six over the bowler’s head, with a follow-through that would please camerapersons. He fell for 70 off 80 balls when an attempted pull took the toe end of the bat, but his innings had laid a solid foundation for New Zealand’s total.With a huge total to chase, the only time Netherlands’ innings seemed to be tickling along steadily was when Ackermann and Teja Nidamanuru added 50 for the fourth wicket, before a late decision by Ackermann to send Nidamanuru back after an attempted second run resulted in the latter’s run-out. Other than Ackermann, who hit a composed 69, every other top-seven batter for Netherlands scored at least 12, but couldn’t push beyond Edwards’ 30.