ICC T20 World Cup: Max O' Dowd scored half century as Netherlands beat Zimbabwe by 5 wickets

A flurry of wickets along with plenty of dots at the end for Zimbabwe and how they would have been hoping for this at the start of the inning! Despite the finish, this has been a walk in the park for the Netherlands as they have managed to win with five wickets in hand and with 2 overs to spare!

They pick up their first win of the Super 12 stage and they will be really proud of their effort even so knowing that they are now responsible for eliminating Zimbabwe from this tournament.

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The Netherlands got off to a shaky start as they lost Stephan Myburgh early but a 73-run partnership between Max O'Dowd and Tom Cooper set them up for an easy run chase. Max O'Dowd reached his half-century and looked like he would take his team home but he was dismissed and 4 wickets for 30 runs towards the end showed where their weakness lies. The target was no under-par and that allowed them to overcome the stutter and seal a comfortable win. 

Zimbabwe picked up their performance towards the end of the game but had a very disappointing outing on the field. They have lost their opportunity of making it to the semi-finals and they will know their fate was in their own hands. They did get an early wicket with Blessing Muzarabani carrying forward his good form but they fell off and lacked discipline through the middle overs.

In the end, Richard Ngarava and Blessing Muzarabani did end up with two wickets each with Luke Jongwe claiming one but their effort was in vain as they succumbed to a disappointing defeat. 

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The onus of this loss lies with the Zimbabwean batters who never got going and posted a poor total on the board. Barring Sean Williams and Sikandar Raza none of the other players were able to get into double figures and that should be a real worry for the team as all the burden of scoring runs falls on their two stalwarts.

The Dutch put on a complete bowling performance with all their fast bowlers among the wickets. Paul van Meekeren claimed three and Brandon Glover, Bas de Leede, and Logan van Beek chipped in with two each. Their effort restricted their opponents to under 120 and the batters completed the formality.