DALLAS: Max O’Dowd hit an unbeaten 54 to guide the Nether­lands to a six-wicket victory over Nepal in their T20 World Cup Group D clash on Tuesday.

O’Dowd’s patient knock off 48 balls saw the Dutch home safely at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas, finishing on 109-4 off 18.4 overs.

Earlier, Nepal had been restricted to 106 all out after a disciplined bowling performance by the Netherlands.

The Netherlands produced a disciplined bowling with Logan van Beek taking 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 at the Grand Prairie Stadium while Bas de Leede finished on 2-22.

England, Scotland get a point each after rain washes out match

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.

Nepal were soon in trouble, losing two early wickets to find themselves struggling at 2-1 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 3-40.

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.

England-Scotland match abandoned

Rain led to the abandonment of the day’s other fixture in Barbados between defending champions England and Scotland at the Kensington Oval.

In the Group ‘B’ match plagued by bad weather, Scotland made 90-0 in an interrupted innings reduced to 10 overs, with George Munsey 41 not out and Michael Jones 45 not out.

But before England could begin their pursuit of a revised target of 109 in 10 overs, under the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method, a fresh downpour led the umpires to call off the game.

Both sides received a point apiece.

Scoreboard

NEPAL:

K. Bhurtel lbw b van Beek 7

Aasif Sheikh c Kingma b Pringle 4

A. Sah c van Beek b Pringle 11

R. Paudel c O’Dowd b Pringle 35

K. Malla c O’Dowd b van Meekeren 9

D. Singh Airee c van Beek b de Leede 1

S. Kami b van Meekeren 0

G. Jha b van Beek 14

Karan KC c Kingma b de Leede 17

S. Dhakal not out 0

A. Bohara c & b van Beek 0

EXTRAS (LB-4, W-4) 8

TOTAL (all out, 19.2 overs) 106

FALL OF WKTS: 1-10 (Aasif), 2-15 (Bhurtel), 3-40 (Sah), 4-52 (Malla), 5-53 (Airee), 6-66 (Kami), 7-84 (Paudel), 8-106 (Karan), 9-106 (Jha).

BOWLING: Kingma 4-0-23-0 (2w), Pringle 4-0-20-3, van Beek 3.2-0-18-3, van Meekeren 4-0-19-2 (1w), de Leede 4-1-22-2 (1w).

NETHERLANDS:

M. Levitt c Airee b Kami 1

M. O’Dowd not out 54

V. Singh lbw b Airee 22

S. Engelbrecht run out (Kami) 14

S. Edwards b Bohara 5

B. de Leede not out 11

EXTRAS (LB-1, NB-1) 2

TOTAL (for four wkts, 18.4 overs) 109

DID NOT BAT: T. Nidamanuru, L. van Beek, T. Pringle, P. van Meekeren, V. Kingma

FALL OF WKTS: 1-3 (Levitt), 2-43 (Singh), 3-71 (Engelbrecht), 4-80 (Edwards).

BOWLING: Karan 3-0-17-0, Kami 4-0-18-1, Jha 2-0-17-0 (1nb), Airee 2-0-6-1.

RESULT: Netherlands won by six wickets

Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2024