In the fourth match of the Nepal Tri-Nation T20I series, Netherlands all-rounder Bas de Leede starred with both bat and ball against Nepal to take his side home by 3 wickets.
All-round de Leede stars in Netherlands' last-over win against Nepal
The hosts decided to bat first as Kushal Bhurtel continued his good form and added one more run to his previous score of 61 against Malaysia. Bhurtel's opening partner Aasif Sheikh registered a four-ball duck before the captain Gyanendra Malla went for a quickfire 20 off 14.
Another substantial contribution came from Dipendra Singh Airee who scored a brisk 60 off 30 with five gigantic sixes and three fours. The rest of the lower order couldn't contribute much apart from Kushal Malla's 18 off 7 and Sompal Kami’s 13-ball 21.
Malla couldn’t care less about taking ones and twos as he smacked three sixes in his 18-run knock. The Nepalese batters were able to reach 206/6 in their 20 overs and not many had anticipated the Netherlands win after such a massive total set up by the hosts.
Vivian Kingma and captain Pieter Seelaar took two wickets each whereas Bas de Leede and Aryan Dutt took one wicket each for the men in orange.
The start of the chase wasn't an ideal one for Netherlands as they lost Max O'Dowd for just 9. Ben Cooper came in at no.3 and played some lovely calculated shots to reach a magnificent half-century.
Tobias Visee couldn't support Cooper much as he went for just 15 off 11. de Leede then joined Cooper for a strong and match-winning partnership of 68 as the latter went on to hit seven fours and five sixes in his rollicking 81-run innings.
Nepal’s seasoned leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichhane took the prized scalp of Cooper for 55 but skipper Seelaar produced an aggressive yet sensible knock of 31 off just 15 to play an important part in taking his side home comfortably.
Sandeep took 4 wickets for Nepal but conceded 48 runs in his four overs to kill any impact of the wickets he got. The match was decided in the last over as de Leede remained not out on 81 till the end and Netherlands went over the line with three balls to spare. For obvious reasons, de Leede was adjudged player of the match.
0 Comments