Netherlands made it a two out of two T20I win when they defeated Ireland by four wickets on Wednesday at Rotterdam.
It was the second match of the ongoing Tri-Nations T20I tournament, which also includes Scotland. The first game was also between Netherlands and Ireland, the match which turned out to be a nail-bitter as Dutch won eventually by four runs.
Ireland won the toss and had elected to bat first. The openers gave them a flying start as they scored 58 runs in in the first five overs. The very next over saw Fred Klaseen dismiss Paul Sterling for 27 runs off 176 balls. Nine balls later the other opener James Shannon was removed and Ireland, after a terrific start, went down to 62 for 2.
The middle-order failed to capitalise on the start as Klaseen and Roelof van der Merwe, struck on regular intervals and destroyed the scoring rate.
Van der Merwe the dismissed Simi Singh to leave Ireland at 79 for 3 in the ninth over. The wickets meant that Ireland's scoring rate fell drastically in the overs but the senior pair of William Porterfield and Gary Wilson ensured the Irish side crossed 100 in the 13th over.
Despite the batting collapse in the middle, Wilson’s unbeaten 45 took Ireland to a respectable total of 158 runs in 20 overs.
Meanwhile, Netherlands began the chase on a positive note. Their opener Tobias Visee smashed 25 runs in the first four overs with the help of his five fours.
Although, George Dockrell ended Visee’s knock soon, Netherlands did not suffer much from that breakthrough. Barry McCarthy took over the charge as he smashed two fours and a six to take the Dutch to 63 for 1 at the end of the first six overs.
Similar to Ireland, Netherlands lost quick wickets too post the batting powerplay. The likes of Ben Cooper, O'Dowd and Bas de Leede fell in quick succession but Netherlands never seemed in any kind of trouble.
When they needed someone to step, it was van der Merwe on the job. He shared a stand of 39 runs 0off 32 balls with Seelaar, as the former struck three fours and a six. Even though van der Merwe was bowled by Barry McCarthy in the 17th over, Netherlands needed another 23 runs from 20 balls and Seelaar's unbeaten knock took them home.
