Clinical Netherlands outplay Nepal

By Cricketing Country | Posted Posted Feb 25, 2024

The Netherlands outplayed Nepal by eight wickets to register their second win in the ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 on Sunday at TU International Cricket Ground.

Nepal were bundled out on 172 runs in 49.3 overs after being put into bat first. The Netherlands only took 37.5 overs to chase down the target, losing two wickets.

Kushal Bhurtel’s 66 off 93 balls was only a half-century for the losing side. He slammed eight fours. Kushal added a 42-run opening stand with Aasif Sheikh, who scored 27-ball 17 hitting two fours and a six.

Nepal kept losing wickets at regular intervals before Karan KC’s 26 off 27 balls dragged them towards the optimistic total. Karan smashed two sixes and a four.

Aryan Dutt was phenomenal for the visitors as he returned the bowling figures of 3-16 in his 10 overs including two maidens. He sent back Rohit Kumar Paudel (16), Kushal Malla (02), and Gulshan Jha (05).

Vivian Kingma hunted Nepal’s top order as they took three wickets, leaking 39 runs in his 10 overs.

The Netherlands’ top order made things look comfortable. Max O’Dowd (28) and Michael Levitt (39) collected 61 runs for the first wicket. Both batted at more than run-a-ball with O’Dowd scoring 28 off 26 balls while Levitt took only 34 balls for his 39 runs.

Vikramjit Singh and Sybrand Engelbrecht’s unbroken 102-run stand finished things off for the visiting side. Singh top-scored with an unbeaten 58 off 92 balls leasing with seven fours. Engelbrecht fell four runs short of his half-century and scored 75-ball 46 including three fours.

Lalit Rajbanshi (1-42) and Dipendra Singh Airee (1-30) took a scalp each for the losing side.