England defeated the Netherlands by six wickets in their opening match at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur. Earlier, Ryan ten Doeschate’s splendid 119 runs helped the Dutch put on a commanding 292/6 in their allotted 50 overs.
Peter Borren won the toss and chose to bat first. The Dutch openers Alexei Kervezee (16) and Wesley Barresi (29) started positively adding 36 runs. Wicket-keeper batsmen Barresi scored a quick 29 runs from 25 balls that included six fours. However, England came back strongly removing both the openers in quick time.
It was then all Ryan Ten Doeschate’s show all the way. Ten Doeschate, who was the ICC Associate Player of the Year in 2010, took 12 balls to score his first run, but once he opened his account with a boundary, he was literally free flowing. He hit nine fours and three sixes on his way to a career-best 119 runs that came from just 110 balls.
Tom Cooper and Ryan ten Doeschate together stitched a useful 78-run partnership for the third wicket. Cooper played good support to Ryan ten Doeschate and scored 47 runs from 73 balls. Ryan ten Doeschate also added 64 runs with Tom de Grooth (28) and 61 runs with skipper Borren, who remained not out on 35 runs that came from just 24 balls. Graeme Swann (2/35) and Stuart Broad (2/35) were the pick of the bowlers for England.
Chasing 293 runs to win, Andrew Strauss and Kevin Pietersen (39) added 105 runs for the first wicket. Strauss played a captain’s knock scoring 88 runs from just 83 balls and kept the run chase alive. He hit nine fours. He also raised 61 runs for the second wicket with Jonathan Trott (62).
Ryan ten Doeschate (2/47) brought the Dutch back into the game by picking the wickets of Trott and Ian Bell (33). However, Paul Collingwood and Ravi Bopara both scored unbeaten 30 runs and added 55 runs for the fifth wicket to prevent an upset victory for the Netherlands. Ryan ten Doeschate was rightly declared the player of the match for this all-round effort.
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