The Netherlands 229 (Edwards 68, Barresi 41, Mustafizur 2-36) beat Bangladesh 142 (Mehidy 35, Van Meekeren 4-23, de Leede 2-25) by 87 runs

Scott Edwards’ rear-guard 68 and Paul van Meekeren’s career-best haul of 4-23 with the ball led the Netherlands to a resounding 87-run win over Bangladesh in Kolkata on Saturday.

Tasked with a short turnaround of two days after being hammered by Australia by a record margin in Delhi, the Dutch chalked up their second win of a historic campaign and consigned Bangladesh to their fifth consecutive defeat of the tournament.

In a comprehensive bowling display, Van Meekeren bagged the best ever bowling figures by a Dutchman at a World Cup after Edwards once again rescued a flagging top-order performance to post 229 from the depths of 63-4.

Asked to chase on a slow, sticky surface, Bangladesh too wobbled their way to 63-4, before eventually crashing to 142 in the 43rd over.

Earlier in the day, returning Dutch batter Wesley Barresi, the sole survivor from the Netherlands’ winless 2011 World Cup campaign brought into the side for Teja Nidamanuru, reinforced a struggling top-order with an attacking run-a-ball 41 and was involved in a 59-run stand with Colin Ackermann.

Middle-order resistance

Once the pair was separated an over apart and with Bas de Leede returning a low score, Edwards stitched together a 78-run partnership for the sixth wicket with Sybrand Engelbrecht (33).

In scoring his 15th ODI half-century, Edwards went past Ryan ten Doeschate for the most fifty-plus scores by a Dutchman in the format and was typically measured and industrious: he struck only six boundaries and accumulated more than half of his runs in running singles and doubles. His knock wasn’t without luck though, having been dropped twice on 0.

As wickets fell in pairs, Logan van Beek’s 23-run cameo, having hit two fours and a six off the last over, ensured the Dutch finished with a subpar yet defendable total.

“Knowing that on a pitch like this we didn’t need to score 350 or something like that, the way they (middle-order batters) soaked up the pressure and then ran hard, tried to limit dots, [and] put pressure on Bangladesh by doing that was great to see,” de Leede told a press conference.

Dutch bowlers clinical in defence

Prone to collapses, Bangladesh failed to recover from 19-2, then lost four wickets for 25 runs and at 113-8, the loss of Mahmudullah, their leading run-scorer of the campaign, slammed the door shut on an unlikely comeback.

The Dutch bowlers particularly targeted the Bangladeshi batters’ weakness against the short ball as Van Beek and Van Meekeren exploited a patch of grass in the middle of the pitch to account for opener Tanzid Hasan and captain Shakib Al Hasan, both attempting to pull and cut a short ball only to feather it through to Edwards.

Al Hasan’s wicket was the striking blow before Mushfiqur Rahim failed to counter an off-cutter from Van Meekeren to be bowled for 1. As long as Mahmudullah was at the crease, coming off a century against South Africa, the large pack of travelling Bangladeshi fans held on to slim hopes but once he was caught off de Leede in the 33rd over, they made a beeline for the exit.

Another top-order failure aside, the Dutch covered most bases from thereon: Edwards pouched four catches behind the stumps, the bowlers strung together dots and struck at regular intervals and the fielding was highly efficient.

Team effort

“It was a pure team performance,” man-of-the-match Van Meekeren said when asked to pick out an individual performance.

“We’ve been working hard on our fielding, every training session we do 20 minutes of fielding drills. Bassy [Bas de Leede] got a good throw at the stumps tonight. We’ve said earlier we want to go till the semis, and for that we need to win games. Very happy with the way we bounced back against Australia.”

The Dutch moved up two places off the bottom to eighth and will next take on seventh-placed Afghanistan in Lucknow on Friday, November 3 (9:30am CET).