The Netherlands beat Bangladesh by 87 runs at the Eden Gardens on Saturday. Chasing 230 the Bangladesh batters never gave themselves a chance and just kept losing their wickets throughout the chase. The Dutch put on an all-around bowling show and got the stranglehold on the batting.
Earlier Netherlands batted painfully slow, scoring 229 all out in their World Cup match against Bangladesh on Saturday. Skipper Scott Edwards made a laboured 89-ball 68, while top-order batter Wesley Barresi scored 41. Lower-order batter Sybrand Engelbrecht contributed 35 off 61 deliveries. For Bangladesh, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, Shoriful Islam and Mahedi Hasan took two wickets each.
Bangladesh got off to a cautious start with Tanzid Hasan hitting a few good shots but in the blink of an eye they lost both their openers. Once again it was Mehidy Hasan who initially struggled but once he got off the mark on his 11th ball, he kept the scoreboard ticking but also kept losing partners at the other end.
The experienced duo of Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim also failed to make any sort of impact and with the pressure piling on Mehidy departed too after scoring 35 runs. However, after that, Mahmudullah and Mahedi Hasan steadied things for a bit with a 48-run stand but a miscommunication in the middle cost the latter his wicket and the former also could stick around much longer after that as Bangladesh went further down.
Netherlands’ Paul van Meekeren was titled ‘Player of the Match’ for his match-winning spell.
- With input from agencies
