World Cup Qualifier: Led by Vikramjit Singh and Wesley Barresi's tremendous knocks and some disciplined bowling, the Netherlands cruised past Oman in match 5 of Super Six in the ODI World Cup Qualifier 2023. The Dutch dominated in all departments, first scoring a big total of 362 and then reducing the opponents to 246 in a rain-affected match. With this thumping win, Scott Edwards' side keeps their hopes of playing the World Cup in India alive.
Openers Vikramjit Singh and Max ODowd provided a great start with the opening stand reaching 117 before the latter falling to Ayaan Khan. However, Singh went on to smash a hundred, while Barresi fell just three short in a blistering 65-ball 97 knock. The inning was reduced to 48 overs due to rain.
Later in the second innings, Oman kept chasing the game and were lagging behind. Wickets of openers Kashyap Prajapati and Jatinder Singh and captain Aqib Ilyas only made the job tough. But the Dutch could not stop Ayaan Khan from registering his maiden ODI hundred who made 105 off 92 balls. But with not much support and the required rate swelling big, Oman fell reasonably short. The lights faded in the end and the players shook hands 4 over before the scheduled end.
The win takes the Netherlands to 4 points in the Super Six stage. They still have one game left and will face Scotland for their last clash on July 6. Meanwhile, they are also dependent on Zimbabwe vs Scotland result on July 3.
After the game, the Dutch skipper also asserted that they were in the hunt for a win to stay alive in the tournament and have got it now. "It was the plan to get the win. Yeah, got the job done. There was a small period in the middle where we struggled but how Vikram, Wesley, and Bas finished off was amazing to watch. It was awesome to see Vikram bat the way he did. Oman went pretty well through the middle but we pulled things back. As a unit we were pretty good, Ryan and Aryan were excellent with the ball. Some results have to go our way, we will watch them but can't do much than prepare for our next game.
