England survives Netherlands scare as Ryan ten Doeschate shines – ICC World Cup 2011
The fifth match of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Cricket World Cup, 2011 was played between England and Netherlands on 22nd February, 2011, at http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Vidarbha-c860 Cricket Association Stadium Jamtha, Nagpur, India.
The match was expected to be a one-sided affair, however, the enthusiastic crowd saw a closely fought match between the two teams.
Netherlands clearly gave a wake-up call to England as they proved their mettle with their batting and disciplined bowling. England eventually managed to win their first game of Group B with six wickets and eight balls to spare.
Earlier, the Dutch skipper, Peter Borren won the toss and elected to bat first on a relatively sunny day; the decision of the Dutch skipper seemed to favour his side as the pitch was as flat as a pancake.
The opening pair of Alexei Kervezee and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Wesley-Barresi-c96487 started off confidently as they added runs on a brisk pace. The right handed batsman, Kervezee smashed two boundaries to score 16 runs off 25 balls before being caught by English wicketkeeper Matt Prior
off a Tim Bresnan delivery when http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Netherlands-c753 was on 36 runs in 6.2 overs.
Tom Cooper was the next man to go in and continued to take off from where Kervezee left. He added 22 runs for the second wicket stand with Barresi. However, Barresi was stumped by Graeme Swann, who was making his return in the team after recovering from
an injury. Barresi scored 29 runs from 25 balls, hitting six boundaries.
The spectators at the stadium were in for a delightful surprise as Ryan ten Doeschate came on to the crease.
The partnership between ten Doeschate and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Cooper-c51561 was the highlight of Netherlands’ innings as well as the match, who put up an excellent stand for the third wicket. The duo shared 78 runs between them to drive their team to 136 runs. The partnership was
broken in the 28th over, when Cooper was caught by James Anderson off a Collingwood delivery.
Doeschate, meanwhile, displayed a spell-bounding innings; the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Essex-c783 all-round struck nine fours and three sixes to reach his century to post his team’s best against any Test nation in the World Cup. He smashed 52 runs from his last 26 deliveries, taking
his team to a massive 274-run score.
Broad claimed his wicket in the 48.1st over while the Netherlands captain Borren (35 off 41) and Mudassar Bukhari (6 off 11) gave England a challenging score of 292 to chase.
Broad and Swann took two wickets while Collingwood and Bresnan claimed one wicket each.
England’s new opening pair of skipper Andrew Strauss and Kevin Pietersen began confidently but cautiously under the floodlights as they reached 105 in 17.4 overs. Strauss scored 88 runs off 83 balls; hitting nine boundaries. Pietersen (39 off 61 balls) was
the first to go after being caught by Borren off a Pieter Seelaar’s delivery.
Right-handed batsman Jonathan Trott also scored a half-century, as he helped the team reach 224 runs in 40.1 overs. Trott’s innings was supported by Ian Bell (33 off 40 balls); both their wickets were claimed by “man-of-the match”, ten Doeschate.
The final overs saw England battling with a run-rate that dipped well below the required run rate, as the men in orange seemed pumped-up by the adrenalin to win the match.
However, Paul Collingwood, who has barely found his form this season, managed to strike well with Ravi Bopara, as they shared a 55-run partnership. Collingwood made 30 runs off 40 balls while Bopara scored 30 runs off 27 balls, to save their side from an
embarrassing defeat in 48.4 overs for the loss of four wickets.
England will have to work on their faltering bowling as they will encounter the in-form http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 in their next Group match on Sunday.
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