Australia 399 for 8 (Maxwell 106, Warner 104, Smith 71, van Beek 4-74, de Leede 2-115) beat the Netherlands 90 (Vikramjit 25, Zampa 4-8) by 309 runs 

The Netherlands slumped to the heaviest defeat in the history of the ODI World Cup as Australia romped home by 309 runs in Delhi on Wednesday.

Set a mammoth target of 400, the Dutch were bowled out for a paltry 90 in 21 overs as Scott Edwards’ side saw its semi-final hopes go up in flames.

Australia notched up their third successive win at the tournament off the back of David Warner’s second consecutive century and Glenn Maxwell’s 44-ball 106, the fastest century in the tournament’s history before the bowlers capped off the win.

Earlier in the day, Australia had opted to bat first on the same pitch where just weeks ago South Africa had totalled 428-5 against Sri Lanka, the highest in all World Cups.

Warner and Steve Smith (71), playing in his 150th ODI, set the ball rolling with a boundary-laden stand of 132 for the second-wicket before Marnus Labuschagne played the aggressor in a 47-ball 62.

Warner’s 22nd ODI ton, which may not have materialised had Max O’Dowd collected the ball cleanly to run him out on 32, featured eleven fours and three sixes and drew level with Sachin Tendulkar for six World Cup hundreds.

Bas de Leede’s double strike and Warner paddling Logan van Beek (4-74) to fine leg had Australia in murky waters at 267-5 in the 40th over having looked set for 380. But Maxwell’s assault catapulted them to 399-8 having plundered 131 runs from the final ten overs.

Maxwell, who had been struggling for form coming into this game was at his destructive best: reverse sweeping the quicks, dispatching bowlers over their heads and launching full-tosses behind square deep into the stands.

De Leede conceded 13 fours and six sixes to return figures of 2-115, the most expensive bowling spell in ODI cricket, an ignominy previously held jointly by the Australian pair of Mick Lewis and Adam Zampa (113 runs in 10 overs).

In response, the Dutch batting failed to get off the ground as Vikram Singh top scored with a run-a-ball 25 before the last five batters fell for just six runs.

Edwards was stranded on 12 at the other end as leg-spinner Zampa ran through the lower order to bag his third consecutive four-wicket haul to become the leading wicket-taker of this tournament.

Disappointment

“The guys will be very disappointed out there in the change room. We talked a good game before the game and we didn’t play a good game of cricket today,” Dutch head coach Ryan Cook told a press conference.

“We didn’t execute our plans quite like we wanted to and then the fight that we have shown in lots of the matches we saw only glimpses of that and we need to play better cricket for a lot longer if we’re going to compete with teams like Australia.”

“It’s been a bit of a roller coaster the last couple of weeks or so. The guys and the coaching staff are experiencing things that are new and different. These things are coming at us thick and fast and we’ve got to find a way to be able to deal with them.”

“And if this experience will serve us, maybe not only in this tournament, but going forward, that’ll be really good for us.”

By virtue of having lost by a significant margin, the Dutch moved to the bottom of the points table and will next take on ninth-placed Bangladesh on Saturday, October 28 (10:30am CEST).