Netherlands bounce back in League 2 to trounce Namibia

 Netherlands bounce back in League 2 to trounce NamibiaComing back from a drubbing at the hands of hosts Nepal on Saturday, top-seeded Netherlands came back to administer a trouncing of their own to Namibia in their second match of CWC League 2 at Kathmandu. A record return of 6-34 from offspinner Aryan Dutt saw the Namibians all out for just 123, before Michael Levitt struck his maiden ODI fifty in the reply, the Dutch closing out a 7-wicket win inside 28 overs.

Pace pair Vivian Kingma and Kyle Klein made good use of the early swing but were kept out by Nico Davin and JP Kotze for the first seven overs. Kingma had looked the more threatening of the two, but it was Klein that found the breakthrough inducing Davin to chip to midwicket for 13. With two left handers at the crease Edwards turned to his off-spinner, and Dutt delivered in style.

Coming back from a horror start to the series that saw him clubbed for 44 off three overs in the Netherlands' opener against Nepal, Dutt found rhythm and turn as three lefties fell in rapid succession. The following wicket of Gerhard Erasmus was more gifted than taken, the Namibia skipper charging down only to skew a catch to midwicket, but there was little Nicol Loftie-Eaton could do to prevent Dutt taking his off stump four balls later to complete his maiden five-wicket haul.

JJ Smit and Zane Green dug in to briefly arrest the collapse, adding 30 for the the 7th wicket, but Dutt returned to clean up Green in the 21st to become the first Dutchman to take 6 wickets in an ODI, and the third in List A internationals following Mudassar Bukhari's 6-24 against the UAE in 2016 and Vivian Kingma's 6-39 against Namibia the final match of the last WCLC a year later. He would be denied a seventh by Max O'Dowd's part time legsspin and an excellent catch at slip by Noah Croes, the returning Roelof van der Merwe having Trumpelmann stumped and Kyle Klein wrapping things up with the first ball of his second spell.

Chasing a mere 124 to win the Dutch looked briefly wobbly as Michael Levitt off the mark with a french cut for four, and when he did find the middle was kept in check by some excellent ground fielding. O'Dowd took the field out of the equation from the other end however, two straight sixes off Berhard Scholtz swiftly settling any Dutch nerves.

The pair added an accelerating 78 for the first wicket before Erasmus finally found the breakthrough, bowling O'Dowd behind his legs on the sweep for 28. By then Levitt had begun to find the gaps however, and his maiden ODI half-century all but settled the game. Erasmus bagged two more scalps as the wicket began to slow up, Sybrand Engelbrecht pinned LBW and Levitt caught in the deep for 57, but Bas de Leede killed off any last hope in the 26th, taking Tangeni Lungameni for 22 off the over to level the scores, the Dutch closing out the win with seven wickets and 136 balls to spare.