Team India, led by Suryakumar Yadav, defeated the Netherlands by 17 runs in their last ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Group stage match at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Wednesday, February 18. They head to the Super 8 stage unbeaten, extending their T20 World Cup winning streak to 12.
While batting first, India lost early wickets, but Shivam Dube paced the innings to take the team to a defendable total, and then the bowlers did their part to seal the result in their favour. The defending champion continued its winning momentum ahead of the Super 8 match against South Africa on February 22.
Skipper Suryakumar won the toss and opted to bat first to keep bowlers under pressure in preparation for the Super 8 match.
Shivam Dube controlled India’s innings
The men in blue posted a total of 193/6 in 20 overs, thanks to Dube’s 66 off 31, who pacedthe innings after India lost the early wickets of Abhishek Sharma and the in-form Ishan Kishan in the powerplay.
Abhishek was bowled out by Aryan Dutt on a duck on the third ball of the first over. It was his third consecutive duck of the tournament. Kishan continued his form and hit two fours and a maximum, but was unfortunate when he was dismissed on a short ball from Dutt.
Dube came to bat at no. 5 when India lost three wickets on a score of 69 in nine overs. The all-rounder built a partnership with skipper SKY and then with Hardik Pandya to take the total over 190.
Dube showed his power hitting at Ahmedabad, smashing six maximums and four fours with a strike rate of 212.90. Pandya scored 30 runs off 21 balls, including three sixes.
For the Netherlands, Aryan Dutt was economical, conceding only 19 runs and picking up two wickets in his four-over spell. At the same time, Logan Van Beek was the most expensive bowler, as he conceded 56 runs but picked up three wickets.
Netherlands falls short in the run chase
In response, the Netherlands failed to chase down the target, falling 17 runs short.
Netherlands lost openers Michael Levitt and Max O’Dowd within eight overs. Varun Chakaravarthy gave Team India its first breakthrough. Kuldeep Yadav rested, and Arshdeep played in his place. India used seven bowlers, including Abhishek and Dube.
Not even a single batsman crossed the 30-run mark except Bas de Leede, who scored 33 off 23. They didn’t gain the momentum as visitors kept losing wickets regularly, and, in the end, Zach Lion-Cachet and Noah Croes showed off their range of shots to help their team reduce the margin of defeat.
For India, Dube picked two wickets. At the same time, Varun picked three wickets at an economy of 4.7.
