Paul van Meekeren’s three-wicket haul helped the Netherlands claim their first victory in the Super 12 stage of the T20 World Cup on Wednesday as they dismantled Zimbabwe to win by all five wickets.
The Dutch, already out of the semi-final race, bowled Zimbabwe out for 117 in 19.2 overs at the Adelaide Oval and, led by Max O’Dowd’s 52, reached 120-5 with 12 balls to spare. Achieved your goal.
“It’s great,” captain Scott Edwards said.
“We came here to win some games in the Super 12. It’s good to get the ball rolling after a great start.”
Zimbabwe, who have won just one of their four matches, need a mathematical miracle to make it to the semi-finals as one of the top two teams in Group 2, currently led by South Africa. The next match will be against Pakistan on Thursday.
O’Dowd and Tom Cooper, who scored 32, put on 73 for the second wicket to see the team home as fans attended the evening match of the Adelaide double-header between India and Bangladesh.
“I was pretty bad at the start. It was important to adapt to the wicket,” said man of the match O’Dowd.
“Zimbabweans have some tall guys, so they have that extra bounce. I took time to adapt but eventually adapted to bat as long as I could.”
Stephen Myburgh fell to Blessing Mazarbani for eight in the fourth over before O’Dowd and Cooper began scoring freely in pursuit of a modest target of 118 runs.
Luke Jongwe caught Cooper off 29 balls which included two fours and a six.
O’Dowd reached his second fifty of the tournament with two straight boundaries but soon dismissed Mazarbani and Richard Nagerwa sent back skipper Scott Edwards but the boss held firm to hit the winning four.
‘Sensational’ O’Dowd
“Our bowlers were sensational, the top four took us very close to the total,” Edwards said.
“Max has been sensational for the last four or five years. He rocks on big occasions.” Netherlands bowled out Zimbabwe in 19.2 overs despite Sikandar Raza’s 24-ball 40.
Van Meekern bowled Wesley Madhwere for a run which the batsman played full on a quick and straight ball.
The fast bowlers kept the pressure on with disciplined bowling and Brendan Glover caught Zimbabwe captain Craig Irwin for three runs. Zimbabwe soon slipped to 20-3 in six overs.
Raza hit a six and a four for 14 in the ninth over from Glover and added 48 runs with Shaun Williams, before Wayne McCrane broke it.
Williams, a left-hander, scored 28 off 23 balls but was caught out by Vaughn McCreen, who was caught trying to push the score forward.
Raza, an all-rounder who starred with the ball in his side’s surprise win over Pakistan in Perth, revived Zimbabwe and hit Glover for a huge six over midwicket.
D-Lead, who bowled with a bandaged cheekbone after being hit by a nasty bouncer from Pakistan’s Haris Rauf in the team’s previous loss, took the valuable wicket of Raza in the 15th over.
Zimbabwe crossed the 100 mark as none of their batsmen, apart from Williams and Raza, failed to make double figures.
Glover, de Lede and Logan van Beek claimed two wickets apiece while pace spearhead Fred Klaasen returned figures of 1-17 from his four overs.
