NED VS BAN - 28th Match, ICC Cricket World Cup 2023

Bangladesh more likely are out of the tournament. Yes, mathematically they still can qualify. But this would be a bitter pill to swallow. They would have fancied a win here. But Netherlands have been a good team in this tourney barring the massacre they had to suffer against the Aussies. Netherlands once again have reiterated how well they can function at this level. They just need more nurturing. They just need to rub shoulders with the best on a more consistent basis and we might as well have a very solid team from the land of windmills. Cheesy it may sound but the land of cheese - Netherlands - have instilled the 'Oranje Dutch fever' in the minds of their opponents. SA and Bangladesh fell prey to it. Others don't want to encounter it. We don't mind cheese. Cheesecakes would be better. But before the icing becomes anymore slippery, this is Kumar Abhisekh Das signing off on behalf of some uber talented sapiens in the form of Sagar Chawla, Saurabh Shankar, Abhinav Guha and Praveen.

Scott Edwards: I think it was easy to be fair. We only had two days off. We were straight into travelling and into our plans. We were saying if we could get 220 plus, we were in the game. The bottom order guys got us to a very competitive total. The bowlers have been awesome. Aryan, Colin, Bas everyone. We have been superb on the field. Bit of everything. The system is getting more professional in Netherlands. We train incredibly hard. We always spoke at the start of the tournament that we aim for the semis. That remains our goal but we have a few tough games coming up.

Shakib Al Hasan: I thought we bowled very well. We should have restricted them to 160-170. We have been very poor with the bat throughout the tournament. This is as bad as it gets. It is very difficult from here. We need to take this on our chin. Throughout this tournament we have been struggling. Not sure what's going on the minds. Very unlike the Bangladesh team. The fans have been supporting us through our ups and downs.

Paul van Meekeren | Player of the Match: Pretty special day. We’ve said earlier we want to go till the semis, and for that we need to win games. Very happy with the way we bounced back against Australia. At the halfway stage, 230-240 would have been par we reckoned. Aryan Dutt and van Beek kept things tight in the powerplay. We’ve been working on our fielding, every training session we do 20 minutes of fielding drills. It was an all round performance, pretty tough to pick a Man of the Match. Scott Edwards and Sybrand Engelbrecht got a bit of momentum for us by building that partnership. Pure team performance tonight.

Stats courtesy Deepu Narayanan

Bangladesh has now lost to four Associate nations in World Cups - the most by a Full Member side.
60 runs vs Canada Durban 2003
32 runs vs Kenya Joburg 2003
74 runs vs Ireland Bridgetown 2007
87 runs vs Netherlands Kolkata 2023

Most wins for Associate nations against Full Member sides in a World Cup
3 Kenya in 2003 (SL, Zim & Ban)
2 Ireland in 2007 (Pak & Ban)
2 Ireland in 2015 (WI & Zim)
2 Netherlands in 2023 (SA & Ban)

Biggest wins for an Associate nation vs Full Member sides in WCs (by runs)
Net bt Ban 2023 (87 runs)
Ire bt Ban 2007 (74 runs)
Kenya bt WI 1996 (73 runs)
Ban bt Pak 1999 (62 runs)

Best figures for Netherlands in World Cups
4/23 Paul van Meekeren vs Ban Kolkata 2023
4/35 Tim de Leede vs Ind Paarl 2003
4/42 Feiko Kloppenberg vs Nam Bloemfontein 2003

21:24 Local Time, 15:54 GMT, 21:24 IST: Orange is the colour of positivity. In cricketing terms, it should be the colour for resurgence and upheaval. Netherlands have managed to defend 229 against Bangladesh. They might have had lesser runs. But they had the belief and executed their plans on a wicket which suited them more than an Asian team. BTW, they were playing at the Eden. The Bangladesh batters looked out of sorts and one by one fell to some metronomical stuff from the pacers and some tight spin bowling. The fielding from the Dutch was top notch as well. There was a brief moment when a partnership was brewing between Mahmudullah and Mahedi. But some sensational piece of fielding ended the partnership and the hopes of a Bangladesh resurgence. Bangladesh have themselves to blame. None of the batters looked to play the big game. They seemed ruffled and they seemed a little puzzled as well. The slow low wicket was well used by Edwards whose sturdy 68 earlier paved the way for a total which has ended up being enough. Few experts did think of an early finish. Indeed it has been one but with Netherlands picking up their second win. Now, you do know why they managed to keep a team like West Indies at bay from playing this WC. They had done a superb job against SA. And now have nailed down Bangladesh.

van Meekeren to Taskin Ahmed, out Caught by Bas de Leede!! That's all over. The city of joy will echo with the happiness of Netherlands. The Dutch have taken down Bangladesh tonight. That was a short ball, Taskin Ahmed went for the pull and ended up finding the man at deep mid. Wasn't well hit and was an easy catch for the fielder. Netherlands win this by 87 runs. Taskin Ahmed c Bas de Leede b van Meekeren 11(35) [4s-1]

van Meekeren to Taskin Ahmed, THATS OUT!! Caught!!

van Meekeren to Taskin Ahmed, no run, short ball, Taskin Ahmed mistimes it back to the bowler

Paul van Meekeren [7.0-0-23-3] is back into the attack

Shoriful Islam, left handed bat, comes to the crease

Ackermann to Mustafizur, out Bowled!! And there you go! Success. He kept sticking to that line. This time the batter played inside the line of the ball, the delivery turned and the off-pole was pegged back. Hit the top of off. Netherlands have been so professional. Ackermann was taken for a few in the previous over but that didn't bother him in this over. A wicket maiden for Ackermann. He kept bowling it at the sticks and finally has his rewards. Mustafizur b Ackermann 20(35) [4s-2 6s-1]

Ackermann to Mustafizur, THATS OUT!! Bowled!!

Ackermann to Mustafizur, no run, excellent over so far. He undid all the mistakes from the previous over

Ackermann to Mustafizur, no run, and that rips away to beat the poking blade outside off

Ackermann to Mustafizur, no run, again at the sticks, again blocked

Ackermann to Mustafizur, no run, flatter one, pushed back to the bowler

Ackermann to Mustafizur, no run, goes back and defends it out into the off-side

van Beek to Taskin Ahmed, no run, slower length delivery and Taskin Ahmed patted it out into the off-side but failed to get a single

van Beek to Taskin Ahmed, no run, banged in short, Taskin Ahmed looks to pull and misses. The ball climbed on the batter a little