A look back at today’s ODI World Cup match between Australia and the Netherlands and a large photo gallery.
Today’s match in the ODI World Cup featured Yellow (gold) against Orange – Australia against the Netherlands. This post is mainly devoted to that match. I did not get to follow anything of yesterday’s match due to work commitments. When I posted on Monday Afghanistan were going well in pursuit of 283 to beat Pakistan. They kept up their good start and won by eight wickets.
THE AUSTRALIAN INNINGS
Pat Cummins won the toss, and decided that Australia would bat first. Although Mitchell Marsh fell early, Australia as a whole batted very well, and an amazing innings from Glenn Maxwell late on, which saw reach three figures off just 40 balls boosted the Australian total to 399 from their 50 overs. Bas de Leede earned an unfortunate place in the record books – his ten overs went for 115, the most ever conceded in a 10 over allocation in an ODI. This record has previously been jointly held by two Australians, Mick Lewis (Johannesburg 2006) and Adam Zampa, who was playing for Australia today, each of whom went for 113 from 10 overs in an ODI innings.
THE NETHERLANDS RESPONSE
The Netherlands crumbled in the face of an all but impossible challenge. At no stage did they look capable of even offering serious resistance, and they ultimately sank to 90 all out and defeat by 309 runs. Adam Zampa took four late wickets for just eight runs.
The 2023 Men’s ODI World Cup is well and truly underway. This post looks at the two completed matches that I have been able to follow, and the game currently in progress.
NETHERLANDS V PAKISTAN
The Netherlands had done well to qualify for the tournament with it being limited to ten teams, whereas Pakistan are among the leading contenders for the title. Adherents of the ‘closed shop’ mentality that led to the reduction of the number of sides in this edition of the world cup would doubtless have used a totally one sided game here to push their agenda harder. Fortunately for those who believe in growing the game although the final margin was comfortable there were times when it looked anything but comfortable for Pakistan – at one stage they were 38-3 before recovering, and the Netherlands were still in it even at the three-quarter way stage. This match saw an example of over-obsession with the notion that the Player of the Match must come from the winning side. This was a clear case for an exception to what is a decent general rule – Bas de Leede’s four wicket haul with the ball and 68 with the bat should have got him the award even though his side lost. In achieving this all round performance de Leede set a new record, because he had scored a century and taken five wickets against Scotland in his previous ODI – no one had ever previously had two successive 50+ scores and two successive four+ wicket hauls.
AFGHANISTAN V BANGLADESH
This was a great disappointment. Afghanistan started decently, reaching 112-2 at the high water mark of their innings. Even by then though metaphorical clouds were gathering – Afghanistan number four Hashmatullah Shahidi wasn’t middling the ball and wasn’t managing to rotate the strike. Frustration set in, and first he (18 off 38) and then Rahmanullah Gurbaz (47 off 62, having at one point been 45 off 54) perished playing poor shots. Several recent big Afghan scores have been built on the back of major innings from Gurbaz, and his dismissal, leaving the middle and lower order to attempt to get the side to a defensible total unaided, completely deflated Afghanistan. They never looked like reaching a defensible total, and they lost wickets with great regularity. In the end, with the last three wickets crashing at the same score Afghanistan were all out for paltry 156. In a 50 over a side game that kind of total should never be defended, and a fairly experienced Bangladesh line up handled the menial task of knocking these runs off with utter professionalism, getting home with over 15 overs to spare. The highlight was an aggressive half century from Mehidy Hasan Miraz, who had earlier claimed three wickets with his off spin.
SOUTH AFRICA V SRI LANKA
A blistering batting performance from South Africa saw them record the highest team total in world cup history – 428-5 from their 50 overs. Quinton de Kock and Rassie van der Dussen scored fine centuries to get South Africa going, and then Aiden Markram became the third centurion of the innings, getting there in the fewest balls in world cup history – a mere 49. There were also smaller explosive contributions from Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller, who as regular participants in T20 franchise leagues around the world relished being in in the closing overs of the innings with big runs already on the board. Sri Lanka’s reply threatened briefly, with Kusal Mendis scoring 76 off 42 balls, but they have lost momentum since his dismissal, and a failure for Charith Asalanka means that after 17 overs they are 123-4, needing 306 from 33 overs at 9.27 per over. SA scored quicker than this in the latter stages of their innings, but they were 210-1 after 30 overs, and it is easier to really pound the accelerator pedal when you are facing what is basically a T20 innings (yes, one wicket down already and no power play overs, but as against that two set batters at the crease together and plenty of firepower to come). Sri Lanka, four down already, will need to try to force the pace while knowing that if it goes wrong they could fall in a heap and lose by a truly massive margin (significant because net run rate could come into play at the end of the group stage, and a massive loss early in the tournament is hard to recover from in NRR terms).
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