England 296 for 4 (Strauss 88, Trott 62) beat Netherlands 292 for 6 (ten Doeschate 119*, Cooper 47) by six wickets
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Ryan ten Doeschate produced a scintillating 119 from 110 balls, and followed up with the brilliant bowling figures of 2 for 47 in ten overs, to give England one of the biggest frights of their international lives. However, his very best efforts were not quite enough to propel the Netherlands to an incredible victory in their World Cup opener at Nagpur.
Faced with a massive target of 293, and humiliation on an even greater scale than they suffered at Lord's two years ago, England responded with a determined batting performance under the floodlights, and thanks to composed half-centuries from Andrew Strauss and Jonathan Trott, they eventually reached safety with six wickets and eight balls to spare. However, the final margin of victory did no justice to the journey they were forced to undertake. Had England stumbled, it would surely have gone down as the greatest upset in World Cup history.
The final overs were fraught with possibility, as England battled with a run-rate that barely dipped below seven an over, against a pumped-up team of performers who could mainline their adrenalin straight from that opening fixture of the World Twenty20. With 69 needed from the final ten overs, Trott was exquisitely stumped off a leg-side wide by Wesley Barresi, who had earlier launched the Dutch innings with a sparky cameo of 29 from 25 balls, and when the in-form Ian Bell was bowled middle stump by the final ball of ten Doeschate's spell, Nagpur really was living up to its reputation as the City of Orange.
That dismissal left England's fate in the hands of Paul Collingwood, who has barely been able to buy an international run all winter, and Ravi Bopara, whose inclusion at the expense of the second spinner Michael Yardy contributed to their problems in the field, but for which he ultimately atoned with a vital 30 not out from 20 balls, including a soothing six over long-on off the first ball off the 49th over - the first of England's innings.
It was Collingwood who proved the key, however. He was England's captain when they lost in 2009, and ten years earlier he had also been on the receiving end of a NatWest Trophy beating while playing for Durham in Amstelveen. The threat of a triple dose of humiliation compelled him to rediscover his fighting spirit, and he restored faith in both himself and his team with an unbeaten 30 from 23.
It was all extraordinarily fraught. Whereas previous shocks have revolved around batting collapses in helpful conditions - think Ireland in Jamaica four years ago, or West Indies against Kenya in 1996 - this performance was all about the weight of runs that the derided Dutchmen were able to pile onto England's shoulders. With Associate cricket in the spotlight like never before, following the decision to reduce the 2015 World Cup to 10 teams, and in light of the recent capitulations by Canada and Kenya in Group A, this was a performance that showed the sport's second tier in the best and most timely light imaginable.
ten Doeschate's prowess in limited-overs cricket is hardly a secret - he averaged 54 in the CB40 last season, and weighed in with nine wickets, as Essex advanced to the semi-finals - but England had no answers to his watertight technique and a shot selection that started out composed before exploding in the closing overs with 52 runs coming from his last 26 deliveries. He came to the crease in the 12th over and though he took 12 balls to get off the mark, the value in gauging the pace of the wicket paid off handsomely.
All told, ten Doeschate struck nine fours and three sixes in a 110-ball stay, the first of which came off a gentle full-toss from Kevin Pietersen, whose two overs were dispatched for 19 and highlighted England's folly in omitting Yardy - Bopara's medium-pace was not called upon. Swann, on his return to the team following the birth of his son Wilfred, was the pick of England's bowlers with 2 for 35 in ten tidy overs, while Stuart Broad was menacing if a touch expensive in his first full international since the Adelaide Test in December. But ten Doeschate treated the rest of England's attack with disdain, as he powered through to his fourth and highest century in 28 appearances for the Netherlands.
25 overs England 136 for 1 (Strauss 76*, Trott 11*) need another 157 runs to beat Netherlands 292 for 6 (ten Doeschate 119*, Cooper 47)
Andrew Strauss restored some authority to England's performance with a commanding 34-ball half-century, as he and Kevin Pietersen laid the foundations for a stiff run-chase with an opening stand of 105 in 17.4 overs. By the halfway mark of their innings they were promisingly placed on 136 for 1 under the floodlights, with Jonathan Trott bedding in on 11 not out, but they still required a tough requirement of 157 at 6.28 an over.
England needed to buck up their ideas after a dreadful effort in the field, and with Pietersen and Strauss embarking on their first opening partnership in a full international fixture, the pressure was on in more ways than one. However, the initial evidence was of an alliance that could well bear fruit, if it is given time to flourish. Although Strauss has been involved in each of England's last five century stands for the first wicket, they have each come with a different partner - Pietersen, Steve Davies, Craig Kieswetter, Joe Denly and Ravi Bopara.
For the time being, however, all of England's focus has to be on a match that they cannot afford to lose. They started with clear intent as Strauss snaffled three fours in the first over, from Mudassar Bukhari - two clips off the toes and a fortuitous under-edged cut past off stump, while Pietersen's first shot was a sweetly timed drive to a Berend Westdijk outswinger.
On a slow deck, Pietersen's instinct was to advance onto the front foot at every opportunity, and his timing seemed in fine fettle even though he kept picking out the fielders in a well-drilled Netherlands outfit. Strauss meanwhile hung back in his crease and took advantage of the Dutch inexperience to nudge and pull eight of his first nine boundaries behind square on the leg-side.
One oddity of the early overs was the imbalance of the number of balls faced by each batsman. Pietersen dominated the strike, and at one stage had faced twice as many deliveries for three fewer runs. But as the hardness went out of the new ball and the wicketkeeper Wesley Barresi came up to the stumps, his returns tailed off appreciably.
Having scored 29 from his first 31 balls, Pietersen made just 10 from his next 30, before Pieter Seelaar added his name to the list of left-arm spinners to have captured one of the more notable scalps in world cricket. A tempting delivery was tossed up outside off stump, and Pietersen failed to get his feet to the pitch as he poked an uppish drive to short cover.
Trott's role in one-day cricket is under some scrutiny despite his impressive statistics, but his calm eye for a scoring opportunity made him the right man to enter the fray at No. 3. By the halfway mark of the innings he was bedding in well on 11 from 19 balls, as England looked in control of their destiny for arguably the first time in the match. —ESPNcricinfo
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