USA had few answers for Kyle Klein's pace bowling as the Dutchman claimed four lbw victims, and could easily have had two others, in a Player of the Match performance to keep the hosts perfect in the ODI tri-series at VOC Rotterdam.
Photo credit: Peter Della Penna
By Peter Della Penna in Rotterdam, Netherlands (Twitter/X @PeterDellaPenna)
Netherlands pace bowler Kyle Klein dismantled USA’s chase of a target of 207, taking the key wickets of Smit Patel and Aaron Jones in his new ball spell before coming back at the death to claim Shadley van Schalkwyk and Nosthush Kenjige for the final two wickets as USA was bowled out for 179 to lose by 27 runs at VOC Rotterdam on Wednesday. Klein was named Player of the Match for his 4 for 32 in 9.5 overs with all four wickets coming via successful lbw appeals. The result meant that the Netherlands finished a perfect four for four in the home Cricket World Cup League Two ODI tri-series that also included wins over Canada while USA’s tri-series ended at an even two wins and two losses.
“Once again we got ourselves into really good positions and seemed to have the chase under control," USA head coach Stuart Law said after the loss. "The run rate was never an issue. It was the wicket rate that was getting out of control. Even the last game, we got ourselves into really good positions. We just lost wickets at crucial times and you can’t afford to do that. Netherlands, credit to them, they bowled really well. They attacked the stumps. The field really was in tight. So they made it hard for us to score. We couldn’t just rotate the strike. We had to hit the occasional boundary, which we were doing but we just made too many mistakes.”
USA’s chase got off to a shaky start in the opening over when Steven Taylor fell for a fifth-ball duck to Vivian Kingma on a ball that nipped back to clip the inside edge through to captain Scott Edwards behind the stumps. Klein then claimed Smit for 3 in the sixth over for the USA wicketkeeper’s first failure in his debut series as Smit defended down the wrong line and was hit on the back leg to make it 25 for 2. Jones was the next to go for 8 on the final ball of the eighth over, trapped on the back leg to one that jagged back to make it 39 for 3.
Paul van Meekeren followed up his maiden five-wicket haul against Canada with a probing spell of his own that claimed Milind Kumar for 9, cramped for room attempting a cut to wind up chopping onto his stumps to make it 58 for 4 in the 15th. Monank Patel, who had been dropped on 0 on a difficult low chance at midwicket in Klein’s first over, teamed up with Shayan Jahangir for a 47-run partnership to get USA’s chase going back in the right direction to the point that USA actually drew level on the DLS par score at 104 for 4 after 25 overs. Monank had just reached a half-century off 65 balls with a boundary down the ground and then followed it up one over later with a straight six flicked back over the head of offspinner Aryan Dutt.
But the partnership came to an end in bizarrely comical circumstances in the 26th over and it served as a major turning point in the chase. After taking a break following a six-over new-ball spell, Klein returned for his seventh over and beat Jahangir with a ball jagging past the bat for a huge lbw shout that was given not out. Seemingly distracted by the lbw shout, Jahangir set off for a run without realizing that the ball had been cleanly collected by Edwards. With Jahangir halfway down the pitch, the Netherlands captain then ran to the stumps and took the bails off himself to run out Jahangir for 20.
“The runout, that’s unfortunate that these things happen,” said Law. “But it just comes down to being alert and your match awareness as to what is going on around you. So it’s an unfortunate thing. No one likes getting run out in any case, but that did sort of put a halt to our run scoring.”
Monank was USA’s best hope to get the team over the line, but he fell for 66 three overs after the runout, flicking a delivery back to Dutt that held up in the pitch to make it 115 for 6. Harmeet Singh drove Kingma for six in the following over to send him out of the attack and then powered another straight drive for six more off van Meekeren in the 32nd, but van Meekeren induced a miscued drive on the very next ball for Dutt to claim a safe catch at mid-off for 20 to make it 137 for 7. Abhishek Paradkar grinded his way to 12 before finally edging van Meekeren behind in the 39th to make it 154 for 8.
Kenjige and van Schalkwyk did their best to stretch the match out, taking the score to 172 for 8 after 43 overs leaving USA needing just 35 runs to get off 42 balls but only two wickets in hand. Klein then came back in the 44th for his final two overs and quickly ended the match. Van Schalkwyk was hit on the back leg in front of off stump with a ball angled in from around the wicket to fall for 12 before Kenjige fell in the next over, prodding down the wrong line for 17 as USA were bowled out in just 45.5 overs.
Aside from Klein’s match-winning figures, van Meekeren was impressive in taking 3 for 31 in nine overs. Dutt claimed 1 for 36 in nine overs of offspin while Kingma returned 1 for 41 in nine overs of medium pace. Playing his first match of the series, left-arm spinner Clayton Floyd was economical with his 0 for 31 in eight overs while Musa Ahmad conceded five runs in his only over of part-time spin.
Earlier in the day, USA matched an ODI record by having seven different bowlers take a wicket in the Dutch innings. USA had won the toss and sent Netherlands in to bowl first while making two changes as Jessy Singh was unable to recover from the ankle bruise he sustained after being struck on the leg with a drive at the end of USA’s previous match against Canada while Yasir Mohammad was swapped out in exchange for Paradkar and Juanoy Drysdale.
The Dutch opening duo of Michael Levitt and Max O’Dowd fought through a testing early exchange against Kenjige’s left-arm spin with the new ball as well as some hostile bowling from Drysdale to compile a 58-run opening stand. Levitt was the aggressor in the partnership, scoring 33 before he fell to Paradkar on the first ball of the 13th, cramped for room trying to cut a ball angled across him only to chop onto his stumps.
Vikramjit Singh made 18 at No. 3 before he fell to Milind Kumar, who induced a loose drive to Kenjige’s right at extra cover where a sharp diving catch was taken to make it 93 for 2. Taylor replaced Milind after a five-over spell for slightly different offspin and began with a wicket maiden that claimed Musa for 6, stuck on the crease to a flatter length ball that skidded onto his stumps making it 103 for 3. Drysdale came back for a second spell and struck in the 27th, getting Edwards to edge behind for 2 to make it 110 for 4.
But USA couldn’t sustain momentum with the ball as Noah Croes joined O’Dowd for a 49-run stand that allowed the Dutch back up for air. Along the way, O’Dowd reached a half-century off 103 balls with his fourth boundary of the innings. A few deliveries later, Taylor had to go off the field injured for USA after his left knee got stuck in the outfield turf while attempting to slide and collect a ball flicked by O’Dowd for a single. Croes fell in the following over to Harmeet for 27, chipping a gentle catch to Jones at midwicket.
Klein was Harmeet’s next victim for 6, edging behind an attempted cut to make it 177 for 6. Dutt and O’Dowd added what later became a crucial 21-run stand for the seventh wicket before Kenjige and van Schalkwyk combined to wipe out the final four Dutch wickets for just eight runs. Dutt skied van Schalkwyk to long-on for 10 before Floyd was late on a sweep and given lbw to Kenjige for 1. O’Dowd then picked out Milind at deep square leg for 77 to give van Schalkwyk a second wicket before Kenjige ended the innings getting Kingma to heave to Jahangir at cow corner for 1 as the Netherlands were bowled out for 206 in 49.1 overs.
Harmeet finished as the only USA bowler to bowl 10 overs in all four ODIs on tour, ending with 2 for 25 on Wednesday. Van Schalkwyk claimed 2 for 32 in eight overs while Kenjige took 2 for 33 in 8.1. Taylor claimed 1 for 3 in just two overs before leaving the field with an injury, though he was later fit enough to open the batting. Milind bowled a lone five-over spell of offspin to end with 1 for 20. Paradkar claimed 1 for 33 in his six overs while Drysdale was the only bowler on the day besides Harmeet to complete his full set of overs ending with 1 for 51.
USA now has two days off before taking on Canada in the first of four scheduled T20Is to complete the remainder of their tour of the Netherlands. The match is scheduled to be played at Kampong CC in Utrecht with a 4 pm local start time.
According to sources, fast bowler Ali Khan will no longer be joining the T20I squad in the Netherlands after withdrawing due to injury. He will be replaced by Van Schalkwyk, who was initially due to leave the Netherlands after the conclusion of the ODI leg of the tour but is staying behind after finishing as USA’s leading wicket-taker in the ODIs with eight in four matches.