Follow UsThe middle and lower order once again came to the Netherlands’ rescue against Bangladesh in Kolkata on Saturday (October 28), with skipper Scott Edwards leading from the front. The Men in Orange registered their second win of the 2023 World Cup and both those victories wouldn’t have been possible without their middle and lower order.
They were reduced to 112/6 against South Africa earlier in the tournament but the likes of Edwards, Roelof van der Merwe and Aryan Dutt got them to 245, which they ended up defending quite comfortably. Even against Bangladesh, the Netherlands were 107/5 at one stage before Edwards scored a handy 68.
Sybrand Engelbrecht (35) and Logan van Beek (16-ball 23*) also got important runs and the Dutch ended up with a total of 229. In the second innings, Paul van Meekeren claimed four wickets and Bangladesh were bundled out for just 142 runs.
“I think we bat very deep, which is one of the qualities we have as a team. Aryan Dutt coming in at number 10, who can still hit the ball miles. So, it's been one of the qualities of the middle order. You know, it's rotating strike against spin,” said Bas de Leede, who scored 17 runs and picked up two wickets against Bangladesh.
“They've helped us get out of some tricky situations. But it's probably from a top-order point of view disappointing that we haven't gotten ourselves off to a good start yet again. So that's something we're trying to fix, but very proud of our middle order and the way we've played so far.”
Talking about the 78-run stand between Edwards and Engelbrecht, de Leede said: “Just the composure, I guess. Knowing that on a pitch like this, we didn't need to score 350 or something like that. You know the way they soaked up the pressure and then ran hard, tried to limit dots put pressure on Bangladesh by doing that was great to see.”
Van Meekeren used the short ball to his great advantage, while the other bowlers also kept taking wickets at regular intervals. “Always a surprise when you bowl a team out for 140. But I think on this pitch it was a tricky pitch. It wasn't easy to score runs. And us having runs on the board, I think it was very clear what we needed to do.
“With the pacers, it being a little bit up and down, spin staying a bit low, I don't think it was the easiest pitch to bat. So, yeah, a little bit surprised, but it wasn't the easiest track to bat on. I think it started to turn a lot more.”
The Netherlands are next scheduled to play Afghanistan on November 3 before taking on England and India. If they win these three games and a couple of results go in their favour, the Netherlands might have a chance of making it through to the semis.
“Difficult to think about I think - it depends how other teams do, how big our chances are for the semi-final. But for us, the goal is to keep winning as many games as we can. We didn’t play to our best in a couple of games, but then again today we did. And if we can do that again for the next three games, who knows where we will finish.”