Netherlands and Zimbabwe are scheduled to face each other in the 2023 ICC CWC Super League Championship, when the dutch travel to Zimbabwe for the set of 3 ODI matches. Going by what transpired at Deventer on 19th & 21st Jun 2019, Zimbabwe will know pretty well that they will be having a tough challenge at hands when the dutch visit them for the Super League fixtures. For having lost both the ODI matches to a team, that did not feature the likes of Ryan ten Doeschate, Tim van der Gugten, Shane Snater, Stephen Myburgh (injury) & Colin Acketmann (confirmed to play for Netherlands few weeks ago) in the squad, Zimbabwe will be pretty disappointed and concerned for the remainder of their dutch tour and the upcoming Ireland tour.
For Netherlands, it was about playing ODI matches again after a lengthy gap of 5 years (after losing their status during 2014 ICC World Cup Qualifiers), after regaining their status by virtue of winning the 2015-2017 ICC World Cricket League Championship. Their last ODI win came in 2010 against Bangladesh and they haven’t played Zimbabwe in an ODI since 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup!! Such is the gap of fixtures between a Full member and a developing Associate member, even to this day when the gap has definitely reduced over the years in terms of the challenge an Associate member posed in a 50-overs format game.
Netherlands will be delighted for the fact that youngsters like Tobias Visee and Maxwell O’Dowd performed well in both the games after making their ODI debut and the bowlers did well in both the games (better in the first compared to the 2nd match). Senior pro Roelof van der Merwe made his presence count in the 2nd match, after Netherlands were in all spots of bother at 163/5, chasing 290 for victory. And captain Pieter Seelaar made the difference in the end with a whirlwind knock to take his side to victory in the 2nd match.
The 1st match was set up by the bowlers, as they restricted Zimbabwe to a under-par score of 205 in a reduced 47-overs-a-side match and Maxwell’s unbeaten innings while chasing was the highlight, coupled with his partnerships with Tobias Visee and Wesley Barresi. Netherlands required two ODI matches to officially enter the ICC ODI team rankings and will be delighted with the results, with which they will make the entry.
Brief Scores:
01st ODI: Zimbabwe 205/8 in 47 overs (Brendan Taylor 71, Kyle Jarvis 32 n.o, Donald Tiripano 21, Craig Ervine 16, Fred Klassen 2/29, Paul van Meekeren 2/30, Pieter Seelaar 2/32, Vivian Kingma 1/47) lost to Netherlands 208/3 in 42.4 overs (Maxwell O’Dowd 88 n.o, Wesley Barresi 39 n.o, Ben Cooper 35, Tobias Visee 28, Sean Williams 2/38, Ainsley Ndlovu 1/29) by 7 wickets
02nd ODI: Zimbabwe 290/6 in 50 overs (Sikandar Raza 85 n.o, Craig Ervine 84, Brendan Taylor 51, Solomon Mire 28, Donald Tiripano 16 n.o, Fred Klassen 2/53, Brandon Glover 1/37, Pieter Seelaar 1/45, Vivian Kingma 1/49) lost to Netherlands 291/7 in 49.2 overs (Maxwell O’Dowd 59, Roelof van der Merwe 57, Scott Edwards 44 n.o, Tobias Visee 41, Pieter Seelaar 32, Wesley Barresi 22, Sean Williams 4/43, Donald Tiripano 2/62, Tendai Chatara 1/44) by 3 wickets
