England and Netherlands will cross swords in the last match of the ongoing three-match ODI series on Wednesday, 22nd June. This match will be played at the VRA Cricket Ground in Amstelveen.
Although England missed many of their star campaigners in this series, they were always likely to have it easy against the Dutch, and the series has panned out along the expected lines. Quite unsurprisingly, the Three Lions have won the first two matches to already secure the series.
Eoin Morgan’s men were sensational with the bat in the first match, where they broke a plethora of records to register an emphatic 232-run victory. In their second match, it was the turn of the bowlers to showcase their potential, as England secured a six-wicket win this time around.
What have they done so far?
The first match of the series will be remembered for a long time by the English fans, for while the opponent might not have been a very big side, their team was simply unstoppable on that day. Batting first, the Three Lions scored the highest first innings total in an ODI game – 498.
Jos Buttler was the star of the show, scoring an unbeaten 162 from only 70 deliveries, while Phil Salt and Dawid Malan also struck centuries. In response, the Netherlands were bowled out for only 266 runs, with Moeen Ali getting three scalps.
Though England won the last match as well, the job was not as easy as the first occasion. In a rain-affected encounter, the Netherlands batted first and put up a fairly decent total of 235 runs, courtesy of a sublime half-century from skipper Scott Edwards.
Morgan’s men, however, chased the total down in only 36.1 overs, at the loss of four wickets. Openers Jason Roy and Phil Salt did the bulk of the runs-scoring, with the former smashing a 60-ball 73 and the latter scoring a 54-ball 77.
Head to Head:
As one would expect, the head-to-head records are completely inclined in favour of the Englishmen. In ODI cricket, these two teams have crossed paths on five occasions previously and England has won all of those five matches. The Netherlands, however, have defeated England twice in the shortest format of the game.
Key Players
Jos Buttler is enjoying the form of his life
Scott Edwards: If only other Dutch players could take a leaf out of their skipper’s book, Netherlands’ condition would not have been this bad, as captain Edwards is leading his team from the front.
In the last couple of matches, the 25-year-old wicketkeeper-batter scored 150 runs at a strike rate of 116.27, while no batter from his team has even crossed the 70-run mark. Edwards struck an unbeaten 56-ball 72 in the first match and then followed it up with a 73-ball 78 in the second game.
Jos Buttler: Though he is not the leading run-scorer for England in this series, Buttler is still the Three Lions’ biggest weapon in their armoury. After an excellent 2022 Indian Premier League season, the 31-year-old took this series by storm as he scored 162 runs from only 70 deliveries in the first match.
Buttler’s knock comprised of seven fours and twice as many sixes, whilst he also remained not out. In the last match, however, he did not get a chance to bat and the job was completed by England’s top order.
Predicted Playing XI
Netherlands: Vikramjit Singh, Max ODowd, Teja Nidamanuru, Tom Cooper, Bas de Leede, Scott Edwards (c & wk), Logan van Beek, Tim Pringle, Shane Snater, Aryan Dutt, Vivian Kingma.
England: Jason Roy, Philip Salt, Dawid Malan, Eoin Morgan (c), Jos Buttler (wk), Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, David Willey, Luke Wood/Brydon Carse, Adil Rashid, Reece Topley.
Prediction
Given that this match is essentially a dead rubber contest, Morgan and England’s think tank could opt to try out their bench strength and give the star players some much-needed rest. Despite that, the gulf in class between these two sides is always going to be a big differentiator, and hence, we have predicted the Three Lions to whitewash the men in orange.