India 193 for 6 (Dube 66, Suryakumar 34, Van Beek 3-56, Dutt 2-19) beat the
Netherlands 176 for 7 (De Leede 33, Lion-Cachet 26, Chakravarthy 3-14) by 17 runs.

India maintained their unbeaten run heading into the Super Eights of the men’s T20 World Cup with a 17-run win over the Netherlands in Ahmedabad.

The Dutch fought valiantly in a run chase of 194, having earlier had moments with the ball, but were always playing catch up against the world number one ranked side at the 132,000-seater Narendra Modi Stadium.

Off-spinner Aryan Dutt returned impressive bowling figures of 4-0-19-2 during India’s innings, before Bas de Leede top scored with the bat with 33.

India’s Shivam Dube, who had earlier survived a tight LBW call on 2, muscled his maiden T20 World Cup half-century, a 31-ball 66 which featured four fours and six sixes, to go along with two wickets with the ball.

Solitary win

The result means the Netherlands leave the World Cup with a solitary win against Namibia, having been edged out by Pakistan in the opening match and suffered a batting collapse against the USA.

After a strong start with the ball, keeping the Indian batters in check at 118-4 in 15 overs, the Dutch were undone by their failure to keep a lid on the runs in the death overs.

Logan van Beek (3-56), Kyle Klein and Roelof van der Merwe got some tap as the last five overs went for 75 runs as Hardik Pandya and Dube cleared the ropes with ease, as much a show of strength as it was about picking their moments.

“Sensational”

“We felt right in the game the whole way (on restricting India for most of their innings),” captain Scott Edwards said after the game.

“We knew they [india] have got firepower all the way down. To keep those guys under control for 15 overs was sensational, I thought.

“Maybe a couple of missed chances, maybe a little bit of mis-execution and players like them will make you pay.

“We knew we had to take wickets throughout. [India being] four down at 16 [overs], they obviously had wickets in hand there and obviously, took down a few overs at the end.”

De Leede echoed his sentiments: “It’s obviously a ground with a shorter side to the one side so boundaries were definitely gettable and I fully believed that we could have chased this down.”

The Dutch team suffered from the lack of a genuine power hitter, or two, in their lower-middle order. Needing 76 off the last 30 balls, similar to what India managed, they could only manage 59.

Off-spin in powerplay

Against India’s left-hand dominated batting lineup, with as many as six in their top eight, Scott Edwards used the obvious matchup, bowling four overs of off-spin in the powerplay.

Dutt extended Abhishek Sharma’s run drought – the number one ranked T20I batter is yet to get off the mark after three innings – and also accounted for Ishan Kishan, India’s leading run-scorer at the tournament.

He should have added Dube to his wicket tally if not for the umpire’s call to deny him a leg before wicket.

The Dutch seamers took pace off the ball on a slow black soil pitch to keep a check on the run-rate, never allowing it to creep up beyond eight an over until the final overs.

Openers struggled

In response, the openers, Max O’Dowd and Michael Levitt were wary against the new ball and struggled for rhythm, eventually being dismissed two overs apart.

De Leede and Colin Ackermann stitched a crucial 43-run partnership as the duo looked to accelerate. Dutt was elevated to number 5, walking out before Edwards, in a bid to take down the Indian spinners but fell first ball to Chakravarthy, who walked away with figures of 3-14.

Several batters started well but failed to convert them into a substantial score. Zach Lion-Cachet (26 off 16) and Noah Croes (25 not out off 12), the latter on his World Cup debut, matched Edwards with a reverse lap and sweeps and kept the Dutch in the hunt briefly with a flurry of inventive boundaries, but fell short, with 28 runs needed off the last over.

The men’s squad will reconvene in April for the start of the domestic season and a preparatory camp ahead of their next Cricket World Cup League 2 games against the US and hosts Canada in May.