Spinners rip apart Nepal in “seaming” conditions

Netherlands 96 for 3 (Barresi 37, Myburgh 33*) beat Nepal 94 (Mandal 20, Van der Gugten 3-21, Rippon 3-21, vd Merwe 2-12) by seven wickets. Full Scorecard
Spinners Reolef van der Merwe and Michael Rippon wrecked havoc among Nepali batsmen picking up 4 of the first 6 wickets to fall as they succumbed to an embarassing 7 wicket loss to Netherlands here in VRA Ground in Amsterdam.

Having put in Nepal to bat first, Dutch seamers did not start as brilliantly as the team played for the rest of the day. In what turned out to be the best passage of play for Nepal, their openers shared an opening stand of 23 off 26 balls. However once, Malla edged a van der Gugten inswinger into the stumps, it was all downhill for Nepal.

Reolef van der Merwe, former South Africa ODI and T20 player, struck twice in two balls to leave Nepal reeling at 3 for 38 in 13th over. Opener Mandal, top scorer for Nepal with 20 runs, offered a low return catch to the left arm spinner while captain Khadka was struck on the pads right before stumps next ball. Nepal innings then went through a painstaking phase for the couple of hundred Nepali fans present on the ground as the batsmen kept falling like a pack of cards – mostly by own mistakes than brilliant bowling by opponent bowlers. Chinaman bowler Michael Rippon got rid of Sagar Pun and Binod Bhandari in quick succession to leave Nepal in tatters. With Timm van der Gugten cleaning up the tail, Nepal were all out for mere 94 runs as only Vesawkar and Kami managed to join Mandal in the double-digit club.

With Nepali innings being completed in just 38 overs, Dutch openers were out on the centre for their chase even over a Lunch break was taken. Apart from the first couple of overs when there was plenty of swing from the pitch and the new ball, home batsmen were never really in trouble. Netherlands quickly raced into the victory with 199 balls and 7 wickets to spare. Wesley Baressi top scored for the home side with a quick fire 33 as Nepali bowlers were left behind clutching the straws. Karan KC, Basant Regmi and Sagar Pun took a wicket apiece for Nepal.

With the win, Netherlands move to the top of the World Cricket League Championship (WCLC) table with 12 points from 7 matches while Nepal stay sixth with 4 points from as many matches. The teams will play the second fixture in the same gound on Monday.

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