Holland stun England in opener

Oh what a start to the tournament! Netherlands beat hosts England off the last ball of the game to cause a major upset in the very first game of the 2009 edition of the ICC World T20, and registered their two points. England, on the other hand, will now need to beat Pakistan in the second game to survive in the tournament.

Netherlands won the toss and chose to field first in the hope that the persistent drizzle that had delayed the start of the game would help their seam bowlers; especially the experienced Dirk Nannes. But the opening pair of Ravi Bopara and Luke Wright seem to have other ideas as they took the Dutch bowling to cleaners. The first ball from Nannes went to the boundary and it was carnage after that. E Schiferli’s sixth over went for 13 runs as the English completed their fifty in the sixth ove, while Darren Borren’s eight over went for another 12 and the hosts looked to have got their skates on.
If the first fifty had taken six overs, then the next one took only five, as both Wright and Bopara matched each other shot for shot. The duo was unseperated till they got to 102 in the 12th over when Bopara skied a Ryan ten Doeschate delivery into the laps of Seelar. One wicket brought another when new-comer Owais Shah flicked a Schiferli delivery straight into the hands of the square-leg, where as Borren was at it when Eoin Morgan reverse swept a delivery into the fielders’s hand!

Five overs had cost only 28 and three quick wickets had fallen, ensuring that Kevin Pietersen’s absence will be felt and also making the slog a little difficult proposition. England finished their inning at 162/5; at least 20 short of what they would have expected at the half way mark, but a reasonably good total in the end.

What they had not reckoned with is the Dutch reply which, despite losing a couple of early wickets for 23, had Bas Zuiderent and Tom de Grooth add some valuable runs and then Peter Borren joining the latter to get to 116/4 in 13 overs. Essentially, the Dutch needed 47 runs in the last seven overs, and with six wickets in hand, they kept chipping away at the asking rate.

Borren had an untimely departure when only 30 runs were needed in 25 deliveries, but a nine-run over by Adil Rashid brought it down to 21 in three. A superb over from England’s top bowler, James Anderson conceded only four runs and had a wicket to boot, which meant that the last two overs had to see 17 runs to be scored from the minnow neighbours. Ryan Sidebottom’s penultimate over was easily dealt for ten overs which brought the target down to seven in the last over.
A single from each of the five deliveries meant that only two runs were needed off the last ball. Stuart Broad was the bowler and the batsman, Schiferli hit it near the bowler itself to scamper for a single. Broad fielded and tried to run the batsman out, only to miss the stump and the Dutch ran an overthrow to win a thriller!

Tom de Grooth was named the man-of-the-match for his excellent effort with the bat.