New Zealand 322 for 7 (Young 70, Latham 53, van der Merwe 2-56) beat the Netherlands 223 (Ackermann 69, Santner 5-59, Henry 3-40) by 99 runs.

A trio of half-centuries, and Mitchell Santner’s 5-56, helped New Zealand inflict a resounding 99-run defeat to keep the Netherlands winless in Hyderabad.

On a slow pitch, Will Young top scored with 70, ably supported by Rachin Ravindra’s 51 and Tom Latham’s 53, before Santner, who later became the first New Zealand spinner to claim a five-wicket haul in a men’s ODI World Cup, provided the finishing fireworks to post 322-7.

For the Dutch, Scott Edwards riffled through seven bowling options and barring Colin Ackermann’s 69, no other batter passed 30 as they crashed to 223 to suffer back-to-back defeats.

Being inserted to bat, openers Devon Conway and Young overcame a slow start – no runs were scored off the first 19 deliveries – to lay down the foundation of a 300-plus total by hammering 12 boundaries in a 67-run stand.

Despite Conway’s fall, a miscue off Roelof van der Merwe in the 13th over, Young and Rachin batted with little discomfort to bring up their half-centuries and put on an imposing 77-run partnership. Their dismissals hardly deterred the approach of scoring at more than six runs per over.

Around the 30-over mark, Dutch vice captain Max O’Dowd pulled out a crib sheet which featured notes on the Kiwi batters, studying closely in the company of Paul van Meekeren (2-59), Bas de Leede and Edwards. The result? Four wickets in the next 12 overs for only 69 runs.

“It was mainly our plans against their batters. It sometimes helps clear the mind given how quickly the game happens,“ said 35-year-old Dutch debutant Sybrand Engelbrecht.

But the promise the middle-over wickets brought was short-lived as Santner (36* off 17), in the company of captain Latham and Matt Henry, clobbered 50 runs off the last three overs to finish with an above-par total.

Remarkably, despite the Dutch stringing along 142 dot balls, New Zealand managed to put on a batting masterclass where the bats manufactured plenty of scoring options helped by some loose bowling.

The Dutch response with the bat under the lights, watched on by a crowd of just under 10,000, was punctuated by streaky stroke play, risky running between the wickets and an inability to adapt to the bowlers.

Only Vikram Singh, who was undone by Matt Henry’s gentle seam movement to be bowled for 12, could lay claim to being dismissed by an unplayable delivery. Most wickets were lost either playing down the wrong line, via a false shot or by a mix-up while running between the wickets.

Any hopes of a dramatic late Dutch comeback were snuffed out when Ackermann and Edwards holed out sweeping Santner in the space of two overs. At 174-6 in the 35th over, the Dutch were then simply going through the motions and ultimately folded for 223 with 21 balls unused.

Too many runs

“Probably felt that New Zealand got 30-40 too many runs today,” Ackermann told a press conference.

“We just struggled to take wickets throughout the innings, All their batters faced at least 40 balls in the top five. So, we struggled to peg them back, which resulted in them getting a good score on that wicket.”

“You need those 100-run partnerships if you want to chase down 320. So, we failed to do that again. We needed to set a firm base and extend the partnerships.”

The Netherlands will now travel to Dharamsala on Wednesday to take on South Africa on October 17 (10:30am CEST).