DALLAS: Max O’Dowd hit an unbeaten half-century to steer the Netherlands to a six-wicket victory over Nepal in their T20 World Cup Group D clash on Tuesday. Set a target of 107 to win, O’Dowd anchored the Netherlands’ run chase with 54 off 48 balls to see the Dutch over the line at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas.
The Netherlands finished on 109-4 off 18.4 overs, with Bas de Leede hitting the winning runs with a boundary to seal victory. Vikram Singh supported O’Dowd with 22 runs while Sybrand Engelbrecht was the only other Netherlands batsman to make it into double figures with 14. Nepal, meanwhile, were left ruing a trio of dropped catches that might have turned the game had they gone to hand, including skipper Rohit Paudel’s missed chance to get rid of O’Dowd in the 18th over.
The Netherlands’ modest victory target had been set up by a disciplined bowling display which restricted Nepal to 106 all out. “Our bowlers were awesome up top,” Netherlands captain Scott Edwards said afterwards. “All five of our bowlers were brilliant. Ideally we would have got the runs a little quicker, but it was great the way Max batted, and Bassie finished it off well. “We’ve got to play consistent cricket right way through this tournament.” Logan van Beek took three wickets for just 18 runs while Tim Pringle also claimed a trio of wickets, finishing with figures of 3-20 off four overs.
Paul van Meekeren bagged a brace of wickets for 19 runs while de Leede finished on 2-22. After losing the toss, Nepal’s batsmen struggled to get to grips with moist, overcast conditions after being put into bat following a slight delay of play caused by a wet outfield. “The conditions while batting were really challenging,” Nepal captain Paudel said. “Netherlands bowled really well.” Nepal were in trouble early on to find themselves struggling at 15-2 after 3.1 overs. Anil Sah was the next to fall for 11 runs after being caught by van Beek off Pringle as Nepal reached 40-3.
There was a slight revival after Rohit Paudel hit a brisk 35 off 37 balls, but the Nepal skipper soon found himself running out of middle order partners. Kushal Malla, Dipendra Singh Airee and Sompal Kami all fell in quick succession to leave Nepal struggling on 66-6 after 13.2 overs, and when Paudel was dismissed by Pringle the final three wickets all tumbled rapidly.
