Netherlands vs Ireland, 2nd ODI: Fantasy Preview

Netherlands’ scraped through to their first points in the ICC Cricket World Cup Super League thanks to Logan van Beek’s brilliant final over in the first ODI against Ireland. Andy Balbirnie’s men looked set to chase down a target of 196 on a tricky Utrecht pitch after Paul Stirling’s 69 off 112 and Simi Singh's 45 but faltered by one run to remain 11th in the 13-team league table.

The Dutch, who are missing the likes of Ryan ten Doeschate, Roelof van der Merwe and Colin Ackermann, looked wobbly in the middle-order and needed a big effort from the lower order to put up a competitive total. The top-order capitulation was worse than the collapse in the recent second ODI against Scotland where they lost half of the wickets by the 33rd over.

Ireland will not be deterred by the narrow loss in the first game with their bowlers capable of picking up wickets at regular intervals and remain frugal through the middle overs. Singh, Craig Young and Josh Little were among wickets while bowling at an economy below 4. The return of experienced campaigners such as William Porterfield and Goerge Dockrell, along with the form of Paul Stirling will give them confidence going into Friday’s match.

HEAD-TO-HEAD

Overall - 11 | Ireland – 7 Wins | Netherlands – 2 Wins | Tied 1 and NR 1

SUGGESTED TEAMS

While you could go for the above team, you also have the option of choosing your own team from Cricket.com’s Fantasy Research Centre. Based on algorithms, we have come up with one team.

GROUND DETAILS AND TEAM COMBINATION

Wednesday’s match was the first ODI to be played at the Sportpark Maarschalkerweerd in Utrecht which has aided both spinners and pacers alike. There was enough bounce for fast bowlers with the windy conditions helping with the movement in the opening powerplay. 

It’s better to have two spin-bowling options with Dockrell and Singh doing well in the opening match. Logan van Beek and Josh Little are the perfect options to have in the pace attack following their performances in the first game.

CAPTAIN

Simi Singh will look to continue his superb form from the first ODI where he was the most economical bowler for Ireland with figures of 10-3-28-1. With 18 wickets from 10 matches, the all-rounder is also Ireland’s leading ODI wicket-taker since 2020. He almost took the visitors beyond the line with a brilliant 45 before being run out in the final over with 12 runs to go.

Our Criclytics Player Projector predicts Singh could score 11-17 runs and pick up 2-3 wickets in this match

X-FACTOR

Paul Stirling has been one of the finest limited-overs batsmen in the last two years as he is Ireland’s best ODI batsman by a good measure. During this period, he has scored 728 runs in 12 innings which include four hundreds and a fifty in the last five matches. The opener was also the top-scorer in the first ODI with a measured half-century.

Our Criclytics Player Projector predicts Stirling could score 30-44 runs in this match

Max O'Dowd is slowly becoming Netherlands' most reliable batsman. The right-handed opener has only featured in five ODIs but already has three fifties to his name. He also hit a match-winning knock of 82 in the first ODI against Scotland in May and is the only second batsman to score three fifties in his first three ODIs.

Our Criclytics Player Projector predicts O'Dowd  could score 23-35 runs in this match

Logan Van Beek has been impressive ever since returning to the Netherlands’ squad after a five-year gap since making his ODI debut against Scotland. In the three matches he has played so far, he has bowled at an economy of 3.88 and kept his cool in the final over which won the match for the hosts by a single run.

Our Criclytics Player Projector predicts Van Beek could claim 0-1 wicket in this match