The Netherlands pulled off a sensational victory against West Indies in a thrilling encounter of the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifiers 2023 at Harare’s Takashinga Sports Club on Monday (June 26). The match ended in a tie after full 100 overs, and the result was determined through a super over where the Dutch held their nerve to stun the Caribbean side.
Asked to bat first, the West Indies put up a mammoth total of 374 runs for the loss of six wickets in their allotted 50 overs. Nicholas Pooran was the standout performer for the West Indies as he smashed a scintillating century off just 65 balls, including nine fours and six maximums. Brandon King (76) and Johnson Charles (54) also contributed valuable half-centuries to the team’s total. Bas de Leede was the most successful bowler for the Netherlands, picking up two wickets. Meanwhile, Logan van Beek and Vivian Kingma also claimed one wicket each.
The Netherlands displayed tremendous resilience in reply to Men in Maroon’s daunting total. Teja Nidamanuru played a sensational innings and scored a blistering 111 runs off just 76 deliveries, which included eleven fours and three sixes. Scott Edwards provided valuable support to Nidamanuru with a quickfire 67 off 47 balls. However, despite their efforts, the Netherlands fell a run just short of the target, and the match ended in a tie. Roston Chase was the pick of the bowlers for the West Indies as he bagged three scalps for his team. Alzarri Joseph also claimed two wickets and played a major role in restricting Netherlands to 374 runs for the loss of nine wickets in 50 overs.
With the scores level, the match went into a super-over to determine the winner. In the super over, Netherlands completely outperformed the West Indies and piled up 30 runs in six balls. On the contrary Windies’ batter could manage just eight runs, losing the match by 22 runs.
Logan van Beek secures a win for the Netherlands#CWC23 #WIvNED #WorldCupQualifiers #NEDvWI #CricketTwitter pic.twitter.com/q7bVaEX1kW
— CricketTimes.com (@CricketTimesHQ) June 26, 2023
Nidamanuru’s match-winning century and his crucial partnership with Edwards were instrumental in the Netherlands’ successful chase. Nidamanuru won the much-deserved ‘Player of the Match’ award for his batting exploits at the crunch moment of the game.