Thursday 25 / April / 2024
Dharamsala: The battle for pride between the ousted teams, the Netherlands and Ireland, turned out to be a slam-bang affair after rain reduced the game into a ‘Six6’ affair in the Group A competition of the ICC World T20 match at the HPCA Stadium here on Sunday.
Being a weekend, the match saw a better turnout of spectators who were treated with some lusty hits after Ireland skipper William Porterfield won the toss and chose to bowl.
The Netherlands had different ideas, scoring ten runs per over and setting 60 for victory in six overs for Ireland to achieve.
Paul van Meekeren then claimed four wickets to take the contest out of the Irelands’s hand and helped the Dutch go home with pride.
After rain threatened to wash out the day’s play again, at least one match has been worked off with the groundsmen working their hearts out to get the ground ready in time.
Put into bat, the Netherlands were led by Stephan Myburgh’s blitzy knock which provided 27 off 18 balls with five hits to the fence.
The next best contributor to the Dutch total was skipper Peter Borren, who score 14 off nine balls studded with three fours.
The chase, however, did not appear convincing for Irelands as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Only opener Paul Stirling reached double digit scoring 15 runs which included two huge sixes.
The chief wrecker was Paul van Meekeran, who claimed two wickets in his first over and was on a hat-trick in his second over castling Ireland’s Max Sorensen and George Dockrell with consecutive balls.
He finished with with tantalising figures of four for 11, while experienced Roelof van der Merwe claimed two wickets with his slow turners.
Peter Borren after the match said it was good to have a win.
“This was like a lottery and good that we won,” said Borren.
Ireland captain William Porterfield agreed that nothing went well for them.
“I don’t want to make excuses and we were not good in this tournament,” he said.
Man of the Match Van Meekeren said his captain’s advice to bowl short of length did the trick.
“The ground staff did a good job and we had a match finally,” he said.
SCOREBOARD
NETHERLANDS
S. Myburgh run out 27
T. Cooper c Rankin b Dockrell 0
R. van der Merwe c Murtagh b Dockrell 2
W. Barresi st N. O’Brien b Dockrell 8
P. Borren run out 14
Mudassar Bukhari (not out) 0
Extras (b-4, lb-2, w-2) 8
Total (5 wkts; 6 overs) 59
Did not bat: B.N. Cooper, P.M. Seelaar, Ahsan Malik, T. van der Gugten, P.A. van Meekeren
Fall of wickets: 1-10, 2-12, 3-33, 4-58, 5-59.
Bowling: T. Murtagh 1-0-9-0; G.H. Dockrell 2-0-7-3; A. McBrine 1-0-16-0 (w-1); K. O’Brien 1-0-12-0; W. Rankin 1-0-9-0.
IRELAND
W. Porterfield c B. Cooper b van der Gugten 5
P.R. Stirling c van der Merwe b van Meekeren 15
K. O’Brien c Seelaar b van Meekeren 0
G.C. Wilson c van der Gugten b van der Merwe 4
N. O’Brien (not out) 4
A. Poynter c B.N. Cooper b van der Merwe 0
M.C. Sorensen b van Meekeren 9
G.H. Dockrell b van Meekeren 0
A. McBrine (not out) 1
Extras (b-4, lb-2, w-2, nb-1) 9
Total (7 wkts, 6 overs) 47
Did not bat: T.J. Murtagh, W. Rankin
Fall of wickets: 1-19, 2-28, 3-28, 4-33, 5-33, 6-44, 7-44.
Bowling: Ahsan Malik 1-0-5-0; T. van der Gugten 1-0-17-1 (w-1); P.A. van Meekeren 2-0-11-4 (nb-1); R. van der Merwe 1-0-3-2; Mudassar Bukhari 1-0-5-0.
